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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499754">Star Destroyers: The Summer Ends</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TranscendentalSpaceGem/pseuds/TranscendentalSpaceGem'>TranscendentalSpaceGem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Destroyers [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aged-Up Character(s), Awkward Boners, Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Bad Flirting, College, Dirty Thoughts, Emo Boy Steven, F/M, Groupie Connie, Implied/Referenced Sex, Jealousy, Making Out, Mentions of Sex, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Rock Star AU, Underwear, mature themes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:41:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,684</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499754</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TranscendentalSpaceGem/pseuds/TranscendentalSpaceGem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the two months after Star Destroyers' first cross-country tour some things have changed while other things stayed the same.</p><p>Now that Steven and Connie have gone back to their normal day to day routines, they need to figure out if and how their relationship fits into each of their lives.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Destroyers [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933939</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Where Are We Now?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here are my two one-shots for Star Destoryers, the Connverse Rock Star AU! These take place between the finished fic and the upcoming sequel.</p><p>These stories are canon to the AU and parts of them may be referenced in the sequel fic so they are worth reading!</p><p>The title of the fic and both chapter titles are songs by the band American Football.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Connie spends a lot of time debating the events of the tour. It's been two months since she met Steven Universe, the frontman of Midwest emo band Star Destroyers, and there's so much to consider when it comes to their newfound relationship.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If Connie were to credit anything to her ending up packed into another crowded venue about to listen to more of a music genre she didn't very much enjoy, it would be InstaSnap. </p><p>Connie was an introverted girl, not very photogenic and far from even being a decent photographer let alone an artistic one. She had an InstaSnap account because basically everyone her age had one but she rarely ever used the app. She probably hadn't posted any pictures on there since last year or beyond and she definitely didn't spend much of her time looking at other people's pictures.</p><p>Max on the other hand <em> loved </em>social media, and InstaSnap the most because it was part of how she kept up with all of the bands she liked. Connie had a suspicion her best friend also tried to use the app to run into said bands "accidentally" when they were in town. She made sure to watch out if the bands or any other fans posted any "snapshots" about where they were going to be partying after their show. (Connie was, of course, 100% correct about that).</p><p>So it was not unusual for Connie to enter their shared dorm suite only to find Max sitting in the common area half-way off their couch while scrolling through the hundreds of pics posted in the tags of the dozens of bands she followed.</p><p>"Hey," Connie said as she dropped her bag on their tiny dining table. </p><p>"Hey," Max said, totally absorbed in the app on her phone. Connie was used to her doing that. Hardly anything could tear Max away from one of her special interests and emo music was half of her friend's identity.</p><p>The girls were in the same senior seminar that semester and they were expected to log in partner study time. Luckily Max and Connie had been randomly paired up and they lived together. Since their bonding adventure on tour with Star Destroyers, Connie was a lot more comfortable with bending the rules and was fine with each just signing the sheet without doing any actual studying. Max was honestly proud of her friend.</p><p>Connie dug through her bag for the paper as she asked, "Did you just sit here all day staring at your phone?"</p><p>"Nah, I've only been here since 10."</p><p>"Max, it's 5:30."</p><p>"Is it?" Max looked over at Connie then checked her phone, "Oh fuck, I guess it is the afternoon. Well too late to do anything about it now."</p><p>Connie laughed and rolled her eyes as Max shrugged off the idea of doing work. She was just as smart as Connie and cared about school almost as much too. However she was disinterested in it at times and there was nothing to be done about that. Connie joined her leaning over the back of the couch, holding the paper next to her roommate's head. She shook it and said, "Come on, sign our study sheet and I'll take you over to the dining hall for stir fry. I’ll bet you haven't eaten all day."</p><p>"Yeah, in a second," she mumbled back. Connie peeked over Max's shoulder as the girls were close enough some privacy lines were blurred. As soon as she looked, Connie smiled a shy smile while knowing her face was noticeably heating up. The other girl was looking through the tag for Star Destroyers. Pictures of all the different band members popped up on the feed (either all together, on their own, or them meeting with fans), but more often than not, a picture of Steven Universe flashed across the screen. She hoped she wasn't making an embarrassing lovestruck face in case Max turned around to look at her, even though she knew she was doing just that.</p><p>Connie had spent almost a full month of her summer completely caught up in an unexpected, adventure-filled, sexy whirlwind of a romance with professional musician and almost rock star Steven Universe. He was known to most of his fans as the frontman of the band Star Destroyers. He was also known to much of the world as the son of Rose Quartz, member of the famous girl band, the Gems.</p><p>To Connie, he was just Steven.</p><p>Although her expression quickly changed as Max got a notification and had to stop her scrolling to check it. Connie got enough of a glimpse at the picture Max paused on before it was hidden by the messaging app. Connie felt her stomach turn to hard stone. Suddenly and very uncharacteristically she snatched Max's phone from her friend's hand to get a closer look at the photo. Connie had to confirm what she thought she was seeing.</p><p>"What in the fuck?!" Max snapped, annoyed. She did <em> not </em>appreciate someone grabbing at her personal property. Even someone she liked as much as Connie.</p><p>Connie ignored her friend, too focused on the InstaSnap post in front of her face. She couldn't believe it. A part of her almost hoped it was an edited photo. That was silly though. Steven was well-known but he wasn't <em> that </em> famous. Not famous enough for someone to fake meeting him. It had to be a real picture.</p><p>A real picture of Steven Universe with a tall, curvy, attractive girl with purple streaks in her blonde hair, piercings in her nose, tongue, and belly button; and tattoos along her neck and hand. She was wearing a pink Star Destroyers shirt that looked like she had modified into a midriff herself as well as ripped black jeans, and a worn-out black denim jacket that was too big for her. One that looked suspiciously similar to Steven's signature jacket which he <em> wasn't </em> wearing in the picture. She was practically sitting against his inner thigh with one of her arms thrown tightly around his neck and her head tilted against his. His hand was settled on her side as they made the devil horns hand gesture and stuck their tongues out at whoever had the camera. Next to the post in the caption the poster, presumably the girl herself, had written. "OMG!! I met the Steven Universe in Nashville last weekend! I just happened to throw on my Star Destroyers shirt before going out too!! LMAO!! He is the sweetest (and hottest!!) guy ever!!🤘😝🤩😍"</p><p>Connie's face fell into a deep frown with her eyebrows knit together. Her mood had been soured looking at this girl <em> gushing </em> while <em> draped all over </em> the guy Connie had fallen head over heels for.</p><p>"Yo! Hey! Ground control to major Con!" Max snapped at her once again, "I get it, okay? I'll stay off of InstaSnap for the rest of the day. Now gimme my phone back!"</p><p>"Who is this?!" Connie cried out instead as if Max had said nothing.</p><p>"Whomst is who?" Max said, wondering if her best friend had either lost her mind or hopefully was finally ready to accept emo music into her life. That sure didn’t sound like a cry of excitement though.</p><p>"Her!" Connie replied, turning the phone towards Max, "This- this girl with Steven!"</p><p>Max rolled her eyes, "Seriously? I did not take you for the jealous type. Just chill out, my dude. Guys in bands take pictures with their fans all the time!" —Max snatched her phone back— "Besides that, I swear the guy gets hearts in his eyes and pops a boner everytime he even just looks at you. I'm sure it's noth- Holy shit! Who the hell is this <em> emo slut?" </em></p><p>"See?!"</p><p>Once Max saw the picture Connie had been staring at she was seething with anger. Of course she was pissed off this little bitch was clearly making a move on her best friend's man! Her anger chilled slightly as she looked back over at Connie. Her friend's face was hard to read. However, Max had lived with Connie for three years now and could tell the other girl was extremely conflicted. She was trying to process her emotional responses to this situation. She looked as if she was parsing through her thoughts. Max didn't blame her for it. Max had never had any kind of consistent romantic partner but she could imagine how devastating it might be to see the person you were involved with in that way cozied up to someone else.</p><p>Connie was spiraling. She’d spoken to Steven two nights ago, possibly hours from when the picture was taken. She tapped her feet anxiously as the image burrowed its way into her mind. She thought about camping with the band in Birmingham. She remembered how Steven had been behind her in a similar way to how he was with this <em> stranger! </em>(Ignoring how much of a stranger she had still been to him at that time too.) That was the night that he had kissed her. It was a ridiculous thought but it crept into her mind anyway. Had Steven also kissed this girl? Was that just his go-to move that Connie had fallen for like a naive and timid deer?</p><p>Except no! She and Steven talked all of the time! They texted each other multiple times a day and video chat three times a week since right after she headed back home and he hopped in his van to drive off to his next adventure. The two were in near-constant contact. Every conversation they had proved Max right. He seemed completely infatuated with her and if she were nothing but a <em> fling </em> in his eyes then she doubted he'd be so <em> invested </em> in her as an individual.</p><p>Especially because she had already done exactly what boys in bands usually wanted from girls when she gave him her virginity half-way through the tour. Which was a misogynistic and archaic way to think about a woman's sexuality. Connie hadn't "given" Steven anything. The two of them had decided <em> mutually </em> as adults to begin a sexual relationship.</p><p>"This ragity ass hoe looks so broke and desperate. By broke I mean broke down and calling Triple A and by desperate I mean as thirsty as me on New Year’s Eve." Max continued to rant, possibly more mad about this than Connie was. Then again that might have just been because Connie was trying to interpret the worries making a home inside her head. Settling in alongside an image she didn’t need to see any more of to have already memorized every detail. She would never forget the sight of Steven entangled in another girl.</p><p>She was disappointed. She kind of hoped Max would tell her that this girl with Steven was someone in another band or in the business in some way. She had hoped Max told her there was a reason for Steven to be with this girl that was beyond her being an invested fan. More than anything she'd stupidly hoped Max would have stuck to her stance that this was nothing to worry about. The way Max raged at her phone proved to Connie that her friend was no longer in that headspace and had moved on to getting out the bats and bike chains to rip this girl a new one.</p><p>Connie felt like she was about to cry but fought the tears off.</p><p>"Hey," Max said in a gentle tone she rarely ever used, even with Connie. She had finally noticed her friend had settled on an emotion and it was the feeling of betrayal. "You know none of this shit about him, right?"</p><p>"What?" Connie said, trying to subtly wipe her face by pretending to fix her glasses.</p><p>"Steven isn't the problem," Max explained, "He was probably just being nice and took a picture cause she's a big fan. People in bands do that. Even when their fans are getting too fucking handsy for their own-" —Max took a breath— "This is all just about maintaining a good public image. Bitch would have lied to everyone about him being a huge asshole if he said ‘no’ to a picture."</p><p>"That does make sense," Connie said with a sigh. She had been there once when a fan took a picture with him. Even though the two of them had obviously been in the middle of a date, Steven took a moment to get a picture with a fan. He seemed to be reluctant about that though. He was in a sour mood for the rest of the day. It was hard to compare that encounter with the picture Connie had just seen though. He hadn't looked remotely uncomfortable cuddled up with this fangirl online.</p><p>Max could hear in her voice Connie wanted to believe her but was struggling. So Max tilted her phone to show her friend the rest of the girl's InstaSnap account.</p><p>"Look! She has a ton of pictures where she’s doing the exact same thing with other guys in bands. That's the only one she took with Steven too. It's not like she actually means anything to him." Max didn't say it out loud but Connie heard the <em> "not the way you do" </em> hidden in her words.</p><p>"I guess so," Connie agreed, noticing that same large black denim jacket in a few of the girl's other pictures which put her mind at ease on that front.</p><p>Max elbowed her friend, rough enough to pull her out of her head and gentle enough to be friendly. "Anyone with at least one working eye and half a functioning brain could see how much Steven likes you."</p><p>Connie sighed again but then smirked with a slight giggle as she said, "He does seem to like me a lot, doesn't he?"</p><p>"Uh, hell yeah, he does!" Max cheered with an ‘uh duh’ tone in her voice, "And why shouldn't he? You're hot as hell, Chili Con Carne! Honestly, he's lucky <em> you're </em> into <em> him!" </em></p><p>Connie laughed. She definitely wouldn't have gone <em> that </em> far. After all, Steven was a semi-famous musician and a sweetheart. There were tons of girls lined up around the block interested in him. None the way Connie was interested in him, however. He had told her so. Steven confided in her that despite having been with many women they had never wanted him for more than that one night. He told her that before her he was an item on a bucket list. Steven had told her in not so many words that she was the first girl he had slept with multiple times. Emphatically pointing out in his dorky yet irresistibly attractive voice, that sex with her only got better and better every single time. However what was even more important to him was that she had always still been there the next morning.</p><p>Max was right. Steven and Connie had a special relationship. They had spent time together. They had formed a bond that went beyond physical attraction. It was so much more than just a summer romance. He spent two weeks telling her this wasn't like his time with other girls. This wasn't like his shallow flirtations. She wasn't like the other girls he met on tour or at shows. She meant something more to him.</p><p>"Thanks, Max," Connie says, throwing her arms around her friend in a hug she craved deeply. She had found her need to be physically touched had increased since saying goodbye to Steven.</p><p>"You feel better?" Max asked, patting the other girl's back before she released her from the hug. She still kept one hand on her shoulder though. Max wasn't big on touching people but Connie was different.</p><p>Connie smiled, "Much better!"</p><p>"Great!" Max grabbed the almost forgotten piece of paper from Connie, "Let me just sign this bad boy and then we can go get ourselves some of that mediocre junk in the dining hall they call food!"</p><p>Connie watched Max sign the paper and stuff it in her own backpack. She was very grateful to have her as a friend. Max was the reason Connie had even met Steven in the first place which she could not be more thankful for. Even though the band mattered greatly to Max, Connie knew her friend would always be on her side before anyone else. She was lucky to have the other girl in her corner.</p><p>Connie had nothing to worry about.</p><p>In the weeks that followed, Connie spent more time on InstaSnap than she had previously in her whole life. It had started with her checking the app a few times since she first saw the picture. Just when it came to mind. However it increased more and more each day, until she was regularly on the app.</p><p>Through this her account had remained basically inactive, excusing the few times she accidentally liked a photo and it never saw the upload of a picture or "snapshot." Her followers count didn't change either. All that had changed in her behavior was how often Connie scrolled through the tags "Star Destroyers" and "Steven Universe."</p><p>Connie wasn't big on social media unless she could use it for job networking. The best example was her Linkup account was almost professionally managed. She had not known how active Steven was online before she started to actually look him up. Though it made sense. He had to promote the band after all, along with Buck, Jenny, and Sour Cream. How else would they get any amount of attention? They had to do a lot themselves being only relatively known outside their own circles.</p><p>Steven it seemed would take a picture with any fan who asked and he let himself be tagged in almost all of them. Most of them were pretty standard selfies with an arm around each other's backs. Some fans got more creative though. They asked him to hold up a beer with them or pretend to rock out with them or pull a goofy pose or something equally as fun. She liked one she saw where he was standing shoulder to shoulder with a fan as they held their jackets open to show off their matching Star Destroyers shirts. He looked handsome in every picture. Unlike Connie, who never looked good in photographs, the camera adored Steven.</p><p>Connie only had two pictures of her and Steven together. Both of which were group shots with Max and the band. One was from the first night they all hung out and the other from their day at the pier. She put those up on the back of her door. She had no pictures of him alone being his cute and sexy self though. She also didn’t have any pictures of only the two of them either, displaying the fact that she was more than just a fan. She wasn’t even much of a fan. She had learned to connect with the emotional aspect of Steven’s music but the sound still wasn’t her favorite thing to listen to (which didn’t stop her from playing it at a low volume in her room sometimes while she was studying).</p><p>Honestly, she most likely would have started doing this even if it hadn't been fuelled by jealousy and uncertainty, if only to see him more often. She liked being able to search his name on any given day and find a half dozen new photos of him from his own account and many others. Steven had no pictures of the two of them on his InstaSnap account either, other than the same group shot from Santa Monica. Still, it made him feel closer to her. He felt much more in reach and much more alien to her at the same time. So many people knew of him and they wanted to show off to the world they had met him. It always threw her for a loop to be reminded in some capacity Steven was famous. Connie felt so average in comparison at times but that only mildly bothered her.</p><p>What really bothered her were the women.</p><p>Not every woman. Connie wasn't some possessive, paranoid, obsessed… person. Plenty of attractive women took perfectly respectable pictures with Steven. A few women just hanging out with him didn't bother her. Although at that point she had done some digging and found that Steven was pretty well-known for his escapades with women. At the very least a good number of women claimed to have slept with him. Even if only half of them were telling the truth that was still a bigger number than Connie had expected.</p><p>Steven's social media tags were filled with pictures of young women in tight, revealing outfits clinging onto her…- onto <em> him </em> in suggestive ways that made her blood boil. A few older women dressed as if they never aged passed their twenties mooned over him too. (Those posts named him as Rose Quartz’s son over Steven Universe.) Women, both young and older, who tried to sit in his lap or cuddle into his neck or tangle their fingers into his hair or tried to touch him in any way a lover would and a stranger shouldn't! Women who were obviously the type Steven was apparently known to spend his leisure time with. Women who quite clearly, in plain speech, wanted to have sex with him.</p><p>Or possibly even women who <em> did </em> have sex with him.</p><p>Connie hated the thought. She wanted to believe that Steven wouldn't do that to her. The issue was whether Steven <em> would </em> be doing something to her by sleeping with other women. It's not like they had talked about it when it came to the end of the tour and it hadn't come up in any of their long-distance conversations. She had hit the pause button on sex, hoping for them to get to know each other better before hopping into bed together. To her credit, she hadn’t hopped into <em> bed </em>with him again. No, the back of his cramped, dirty, tour van was good enough for her. They should have talked about it then or at least before they said their goodbyes or during one of the many conversations they’d had since.</p><p>They talked often on the phone and through text. Not always about something that strictly mattered. Well, it mattered because everything they said to each other mattered to some degree. They mattered to each other so that’s what made it important.</p><p>“How was school today?” Steven asked during a conversation about two week into her online stalking. </p><p>His voice always dropped to somewhere deep yet somehow sweet whenever they spoke on the phone. Even when he wasn’t trying to be seductive or sexy he would slip into it anyway. Connie just did that to him. He wanted to impress her, he wanted her to want him so he fell back on all the old tricks of his Universe charm.</p><p>“You don’t have to ask me that every time we talk, silly?” Connie had said back, trying not to giggle like a highschool girl with a crush on the popular quarterback. She appreciated him caring but honestly, she couldn’t imagine how someone as interesting as Steven could find her life something worth talking about. He knew actual famous people or semi-famous people anyway and he met beautiful girls all the time with stories of their wild nights partying with friends. She wasn’t exactly sure why he even liked plain-Jane her.</p><p>“But I want to know!” he said, insistently.</p><p>“It’s just the same thing every day.” She sighed, “This can't be enjoyable for you, Mr. Rock Star.”</p><p>“Of course, it is! It's so cool to hear about your school,” he reassured, “I’ve never been to college before. I’ve never even been to regular school either, remember? It’s nice hearing about your normal days.”</p><p>Normal. She didn't like to be described in that way. Even though she knew he had meant it as a compliment. Steven had told her before that she was a special girl, but she didn't feel special unless he was telling her she was. He had now switched over to calling her normal. Was he getting bored with her? Even as Steven said he liked it, Connie felt like it had been the worse thing he could have said to her.</p><p>“Besides,” he added after a moment, “I like to hear you talk, Connie. Everything you say is so, I don’t know, smart? It’s like you know everything.”</p><p>“I don’t know everything,” she said, feeling her face flush from his words as some of her insecurity melted away, “I barely know most things in my own major.”</p><p>“Oh come on, that can’t be true.”</p><p>He was so sweet and he thought so highly of her. It should have made her feel better. It should have made her feel like he truly cared about her. It should have cheered her up. It didn’t. It didn’t because it was just one more way she was different from those other girls he met. One more way they two didn’t exist in the same universe. One more way they were miles apart in not just distance but experience. They almost lived in different realities.</p><p>“Okay well if you really want to know,” Connie said, slowly, giving him one last chance to protest. He didn’t and so she continued, “I decided to take a creative writing class this semester and we are expected to write a full short story by May. I thought it would be fun to do something not in my major but I think it’s just stressing me out.”</p><p>“Huh? How?” he asked with genuine interest, “Don’t you read fantasy books all the time?”</p><p>Her heart fluttered hearing he remembered something like that. He listened to her when they talked, “I’m having a hard time keeping my thoughts straight, you know?  The story is a mess. I guess I’m just not as creative as you are.”</p><p>“You are creative,” he said with passion, wanting her to truly believe and see what he saw in her, “You’re smart and beautiful and talented and you can do it!”</p><p>His words flustered her again. How was this guy so charming! Probably because he'd had a lot of practice on other girls. “It’s just-Just trying to figure out what goes in what order and when I want everything in it to happen.”</p><p>“You should try post-it notes.”</p><p>“What?” she asked.</p><p>“Post-it notes,” Steven repeated, “I have a bunch of them in my songbook. I use them so if I’m not sure where I want a lyric to go I can move it before I write down the final version of the song. You could do the same thing if you wanted. That way you could move stuff around.”</p><p>Connie was a little speechless. It was a good idea. It was a great idea honestly. She smiled to herself. “That’s good advice. Thanks.”</p><p>She could hear the shyness in his voice when he said, "You're welcome." </p><p>She was equally as shy as she continued, “You’re so smart, Steven.”</p><p>“Not as smart as you are.” His voice dipped into a husky whisper as he said, “Or as sexy.”</p><p>"Oh." Connie bit down on her lip before quickly saying, “I have to go now."</p><p>"Alright," Steven responded, sounding disappointed, "I'll call you again soon. It was nice talking to you."</p><p>"It was nice talking to you too," she said. Then already pulling the phone away from her ear finished with, "Okay, bye."</p><p>"Bye." Steven had barely got the word out before Connie was hanging up the phone.</p><p>She was unsure why but she didn’t have it in her to respond to such a statement. To him once more admitting to his attraction to her. It wasn't the first time something like that had happened. She enjoyed it but as weeks passed it became harder and harder to know what to do.</p><p>When she was on the phone with Steven there was no doubt in her mind he was still very much interested in her. He was alone in his apartment whenever she called to talk to him. He rarely mentioned spending time with other people except for his dad. He asked her about her day and what was happening at her school. He gave every word she said his full attention. Over video call, he stared at her the same way he had done from almost the moment he met her with eyes brimming with admiration and affection. She checked her phone to find he had sent a heart or kiss gif and nothing else maybe three of four times every day. He told her that she was beautiful every chance he got. He had even listed off all the things he missed about her. Her laugh, her rants, her smile, the way she always rolled her eyes at things, how much coffee she drank, how smart she was.</p><p>Their talks were good. Usually they were the best part of her day. The conversation ranged from exciting to mundane. It was always a good talk regardless of subject.</p><p>Boldly, during one conversation Steven had even asked her a question she wasn't sure he was ready to answer.</p><p>"Connie?" he started in a quiet second. </p><p>"Yeah?" she asked back as gently.</p><p>"Do you ever think about… what happened in L.A. or Grand Rapids? Between us?"</p><p>Her face had gone hot. Part of her wanted to pretend that Steven meant their day at the Santa Monica pier and their first date. She wanted to pretend that he had meant them laughing together and flirting badly. She wanted to pretend his mind was filled with memories like those. That was ridiculous because she knew it was filled with memories bathed in the romance of them enjoying every moment they had together. She knew he thought about Birmingham and Austin. She knew he thought about their time together in Chicago and Indianapolis. He thought about every laugh and every conversation.</p><p>Connie also knew that wasn't what he was asking her.</p><p>Steven had meant the recording studio, the hotel room, the back of his tour van. He was asking if she ever thought about the two of them having sex. He had just told her without telling her that he thought about it. He thought about her body and her moans and about being inside of her.</p><p>Did he think about her when he was inside of other women too?</p><p>"I think about everything we did together during our trip, a lot." is what she said.</p><p>"Everything?"</p><p>
  <em> "Everything." </em>
</p><p>That wasn't a lie. She thought about him all the time. She thought about going swimming and playful showers together. She thought about ice-cream and love stories. She thought about buying her new converse shoes and sneaking away for hidden kisses. She thought about roller skating and skateboarding. She thought about going to that awful quilt museum and crowd surfing at the same time as him and watching his band play the same set of songs on stage every night.</p><p>Connie thought about Steven quite often. Including their night together in both L.A. and Grand Rapids. She thought about <em> those times </em> while in her bed late at night and during daily showers with her fingers working between her legs and his name falling off of her tongue. It didn't live up to her memories but it was good enough.</p><p>Steven Universe lived rent-free in her mind and in her heart. She believed she had all of his mind and his heart as well. The part she wasn’t so sure of was if she also had his <em> body </em>to herself.</p><p>Connie dropped her phone onto the table and covered up her face with her hands, pushing up her glasses. She screamed as softly as she could manage into her palms. Max was studying on their shared couch and though she had her headphones in, Connie didn’t want to disturb her. How had she made it far enough down both the tags to be seeing the same pictures from two days ago? She had to admit as the weeks went on she was spending more and more time on InstaSnap just digging up pictures of Steven. She had to control herself.</p><p>Yet as soon as her hands were gone from her face she picked the phone back up to scroll to the top of the page. New pictures may have been posted since she started looking through them- </p><p>Connie didn’t get far before she heard the distinct slam of a heavy book dropping onto the table. She flinched and looked to the side to see Max standing over her with her headphones now hung over her neck. Her friend sighed dramatically in frustration before scolding, “Okay, this! <em> This! </em> This has to stop!" </p><p>"Wha- What do you mean?" Connie asked her roommate nervously.</p><p>Max crossed over her arm, not for even a single second buying Connie's act, saying, "This! You check the Star Destroyers tag more than I do. <em> Me </em>!”</p><p>“I know…” Connie sighed, putting her phone on the table. This time face down in the hopes of discouraging herself. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”</p><p>Max dropped into the other chair at the tiny dining table. “It’s not bad." </p><p>Connie simply gave her an exhausted look in response.</p><p>"Okay yeah, it’s pretty bad," Max admitted, "But I’m more worried. I don’t understand why you don’t just talk to him? This really isn’t like you. You hardly ever keep your thoughts to yourself. You have more opinions on limiting the sale and use of plastic straws than I do on most things."</p><p>“Because it's a fruitless effort with an empty meaning!" Connie suddenly ranted, "Why should responsibility for the planet’s well-being fall on poor people? Over 80% of pollution can be traced back to and solved by six corporations. The same six corporations I might add that-"</p><p>“Not the point here, Con,” Max interrupted before Connie could go off on another one of her tirades. Max was concerned about social issues too but now wasn’t the time. “This is about you avoiding Steven when this clearly upsets you! You talk to him almost every goddamn day. How has this not come up yet?”</p><p>Connie bit her lip, “I don’t know! I've never had a problem telling him anything before. He's usually so easy to talk to. And I want to tell him but I can't…"</p><p>"Because?"</p><p>"Because… I…” Connie trailed off quietly. Max had to lean in close to hear her finish, “If I start acting all jealous over something like this then he might- I really like him, Max. A lot! More than any guy I've dated or even met! And I want him to like me too…"</p><p>“But he <em> does </em> like you,” Max reassured, reaching out to put one hand on her friend’s shoulder. Connie's hand quickly came up to grab it. She had been very physical as of late. “And he likes the sassy, opinionated, annoying, ranting and <em> honest </em> version of you. He cares about you. A lot. He would want to know how you feel about all this. I understand that you want to trust he's not cheating on you, lest you become an outdated and offensive stereotype of a melodramatic, jealous lover. But obviously, that’s not working!”</p><p>"Yeah." Feeling guilty, Connie turned her eyes away from her friend. She knew she had to tell Max the <em> other </em>reason she hadn’t spoken with Steven. “It’s not just that…”</p><p>“Then what is it?”</p><p>“We didn’t exactly… agree on anything.” She fell back in her chair, “We didn't talk about being exclusive like that. We just decided we would be sure to stay in touch. So even if he <em> is </em> sleeping with these girls, he’s not <em> technically </em>cheating on me.”</p><p>“Bullshit!” Max responded, voice full of venom.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You heard me!” Max asserted, “Just because you didn’t explicitly agree that you weren’t gonna fuck other people doesn’t mean he gets to stick his dick in any girl he meets! He should have talked to you before he did it the first time!"</p><p>"I guess..." Connie trailed off again though she had to concede, Max had a point.</p><p>"That is," Max continued on, "<em> If </em> he's even sticking his dick in other girls, which again, you don’t know he is!”</p><p>“You're right,” Connie moaned, “I hate it but you’re right.”</p><p>“Of course I’m right,” Max answered, a little too smugly given the circumstances, “I’m also right about you needing to talk to him. Preferably today, in fact preferably right now!”</p><p>“Stop it,” Connie almost laughed, “You’re making me feel kind of like an idiot.”</p><p>“You’re acting kind of like an idiot.”</p><p>Connie sighed, picking up her phone but not turning it around at first. She could feel Max leaning by her shoulder to make sure she didn't open the app. She opened up her contact list instead. She quickly found the one and only name in her phone with an emoji. She had gotten so used to the little guitar she rarely took much note of it. When she did notice it, her heart beat just that much faster. Connie wanted to talk with him. She wanted to hear his voice. Her finger hovered over the call button for a moment before she decided against it. There was something off.</p><p>"What are you doing?" Max asked before gesturing to the phone, "Call him."</p><p>"I can't," Connie said, looking at her phone and fighting the urge to open InstaSnap at that moment.</p><p>Max took the phone from her, "Then I will call him for you."</p><p>"No!" Connie yelled, grabbing for her phone as Max attempted to hit the call button. The two fought over the phone for a short moment much like she had done the first time Max had tried to force her to call Steven. They yanked and smacked at each other like children before Max finally released it. Connie had knocked her chair over in her attempt to get her phone back. Max sometimes forgot just how feisty and scrappy Connie was. Though the girl was mostly bookish, timid, and quiet, she could probably handle herself in a fight.</p><p>"Fine!" Max said as they straightened out the table "You do you. I was just trying to help you. But if you want to be miserable then be miserable!"</p><p>"No, it's not that," Connie said as she fixed her chair.</p><p>"Then what is it?" Max asked her with her arms crossed over again. She was more than a little sick of all the twists and turns this journey was taking.</p><p>Connie sighed as they both fell back into their seats. It had taken her some time but she realized why she was struggling to bring it up with Steven. So she explained, "I haven't talked to him about this because if we're going to talk about it then it needs to be in person. It's just how it has to be."</p><p>Connie moaned loudly as she sunk down in her chair, "But who knows when we're going to see each other again. We haven't even talked about that."</p><p>Steven and Connie had agreed to stay in contact and promised to visit each other. The latter had yet to happen, however. Luck was on their side as they discovered the distance between Steven's apartment just outside Nashville and Connie's college was a little less than half a day's drive. That wasn't a quick trip but it was shorter than either of them had expected it to be. Even still no visits had been planned yet. Unsurprisingly Connie was busy working through the final year of her degree and Steven had told her he was already in the beginning process of writing a new album. The trip was a bit too far for a quick visit. Neither of them could realistically fit it into their schedules at the moment.</p><p>However, if she was going to talk about this with him, she wanted to do it with them together in the same space. This wasn't the kind of conversation to have over the phone, even video chat and especially it wasn't one to have over texting. It was the only way she was going to be comfortable bringing it up.</p><p>"Wait," Max said suddenly as a memory she wasn't sure was correct came to her. She pulled out her own phone to check the Star Destroyers' Tweetler promotion page and sure enough, she had been right. "Yes, I knew it! I thought I saw this!"</p><p>"What?" Connie asked, confused by Max changing the subject until presented with her friend's phone screen.</p><p>"Steven is playing a solo show in St. Louis this Sunday!" Max explained excitedly, "That's what? A four-hour drive from here, maybe less? We can totally make that!"</p><p>"Wait, really?" Connie said, grabbing the phone from her friend since apparently, they didn't respect each other's personal property anymore. Sure enough, the page showed off a promotion for the show of one Steven Universe.</p><p>Max cheered, "I remembered reading about it! This is your in, Con! We can tag team the drive over, I can see a cool show, you can either kiss or kill Steven based upon his dick sticking habits and we'll be back in time to crash for class Monday."</p><p>Connie started at the screen, Steven had mentioned playing a show that weekend. But he hadn't told her just how close it was to her. It was nearly directly between them. She wasn't sure why he wouldn't tell her. The only options were he didn't want her to go to his show or he did want her to go but for some reason thought that she wouldn't want to. Neither were great options but she wanted to believe it was the latter. Though she was afraid it was the former. There was a chance Steven didn't want Connie intruding on his life. Despite being as social as he was, Steven was actually a relatively private guy. Was it worth risking?</p><p><em> Yes. </em> </p><p>Looking at his face in the pictures brought an answer immediately. Four hours each way was much more doable than driving eight each way. Suddenly seeing him became attainable and that put a rapid flutter into her heart! Romantic fantasies about what their first in-person meeting in weeks would be like raced in her mind. She couldn't wait to see him not locked behind a screen, to hear his voice not filtered by a phone connection, to hug him, maybe even kiss him.</p><p>She really wanted to kiss him again…</p><p>"Okay, yeah!" Connie said, sure in her decision. "Let's head to St. Louis!"</p><p>"Alright! Max Attack and her sidekick Groupie Connie are on the road to see Star Destroyers again!" Max cheered then she shrugged, "Well kinda. We're going to see one member anyway."</p><p>"The cutest one…" Connie found herself mumbling as she opened InstaSnap to look at Steven's profile again. She barely even heard Max teasing her. She was too focused on the fact that she was going to see Steven again. </p><p>It was odd. The idea that Connie and Max were going to see him reminded her of the tour just a couple weeks back. It ignited all those feelings inside her from the first few days she knew Steven. Even though it was for a purpose she was able to be excited about it and looking forward to it.</p><p>Until two hours later when an "Oh Fuck!" from Max's room interrupted Connie drying her hair in the bathroom. Max's room was close to the bathroom and her door was left open so she glanced in. Max was sitting on her bed with a frustrated look on her face. The girls were comfortable enough with each other at that point to just enter each other's rooms so that's exactly what Connie did. Max looked up as soon as she felt Connie hovering by her bed. She knew something was wrong the literal second she saw Max's face. Her stomach dropped, anxiously awaiting the bad news.</p><p>"What's going on?" Connie asked, trying to keep composure for Max's sake.</p><p>"That was my dad," Max explained as the look on her face got worse.</p><p>"Oh no!" Connie said, dropping to the bed to grab hold of her friend's shoulders in a show of support, "Is everyone doing okay? Did something happen to him or one of your brothers? Do you need anything? How can I help?"</p><p>"Whoa, whoa, take a breath, Con artist," Max said, pulling Connie's hands away from her shoulders but keeping a hold on them to ease the blow of what she had to tell her, "It's nothing like that. My family is doing okay."</p><p>"Oh, good," Connie sighed, her curiosity having been negated by her worry and then her relief.</p><p>"Yeah." Max picked up her stuffed dog toy, Stephen Space-Wolf, to put between them like a shield, "Okay enough for me to go home to visit this weekend for my big-little cousin's sixteenth birthday."</p><p>"Oh!" Connie said with some excitement for Max knowing how close she was to all her many younger cousins but especially the oldest one, only for her to realize why that upset her friend a second later, "Oh…"</p><p>"I'm so, so sorry," Max said, apologetically, "I totally spaced on why I hadn't gotten us tickets to Steven's show in the first place. My flight is booked already. I love you but this is my family and you know how tight we are. She'd be so disappointed if I flaked on her. I can't not go!"</p><p>"It's okay," Connie cut in, "Of course I don't want you to miss your cousin's birthday just to go with me to a show to see a guy. This is way more important!"</p><p>"I feel awful," Max sighed out dramatically, "I am a disgrace. I don't deserve my role as the 'funny, eccentric yet also supportive and surprisingly endearing best friend with a badass action scene' in your love story."</p><p>"It's okay." Connie laughed despite herself. Max was good at giving bad news since she could manage to make Connie laugh. It was tinted with melancholy though over her missed opportunity to see the man that she had been thinking about first thing every morning and last thing every night for months. "Your sixteenth birthday only happens once in your life. I'm sure I'll get other chances to see Steven."</p><p>"What?" Max almost snapped at Connie, "No! You have to go!"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"You have been half-obsessed with this Steven thing for nearly two full weeks now. Who knows when you're going to have another opportunity?! No way you are missing this! You're going and that's final!"</p><p>Connie was in shock. Something about going to the show without her best friend felt like a betrayal. As silly as it sounded and despite Connie's intimate relationship with the lead singer, after following the band across the country, Star Destroyers had become like Max and Connie's thing. They had inside jokes about the trip and jammed along to the songs in the car even though Connie didn't particularly like any of the songs. They sometimes even went out together while wearing their tour merch.</p><p>"Max, I can't go to the show without <em> you!" </em></p><p>"It's fine, really." It wasn't fine. It hurt her very much to say it but she cared far too much about Connie to keep her from going to see the show. Max knew the situation with Steven had brought Connie to tears at least once. Max had heard her crying in her room two nights ago after getting off the phone with the musician. Connie had to see him.</p><p>"Max-"</p><p>"It is! It's not even a Star Destroyers show! It's just Steven playing solo! That's not the same thing. Honestly, it might even be kind of boring. I feel a little bad for you."</p><p>They both knew that she was lying through her teeth by the shakiness in her voice as she continued, "You need to go! You know because it's true love and follow your heart and blah blah bullshit."</p><p>"Max…"</p><p>"Don't," Max interrupted. The fact that she was going to miss out on seeing one of her favorite musicians with her best friend was hard enough without Connie's gratitude, "Just make sure you take pictures and videos and if there's a pit and you don't get in it then I will be so pissed at you!"</p><p>"How will you know?" Connie laughed with a heart filled with deep appreciation.</p><p>Max gave her a very serious, intense look, "Trust me. I will know."</p><p>"Thanks." Connie threw her arms around Max's torso, happy to have the other girl's blessing even if she still felt guilt and fear over going alone. Her friend was right.</p><p>Connie needed to see Steven.</p><p>Max was still kind enough to lend her car. Unfortunately, she did need a ride to the airport first to catch her flight so there wasn't much Connie could do about the travel schedule. If she booked it she could make it about twenty minutes before the show started. Although she actually got there about five minutes before the show started because for the first time in her life she had been pulled over for speeding!</p><p>Connie made it though. The unfortunate consequence was she was stuck at the back of the venue with a rowdy crowd and no Max to cling to for solidarity. She went for the bar as soon as she entered as if she was almost hoping to recreate her first meeting with Steven. He didn't wander by the bar though. She waited there until right before he was set to go on stage. She was being ridiculous. She would get the chance to see him. She would make sure of it.</p><p>Connie didn't enjoy much at all about this music scene. Not the screaming, not the harsh notes on the instruments, not how she could barely understand what the lyrics to the songs were. She didn't hate it but she didn't quite like it. No matter how much she liked Steven, she doubted that she would ever truly warm up to his music. Besides all of that Steven's voice was so beautiful when he sang. She could hear that his yelling was on key even if it wasn't nearly as lovely. Although she would much rather hear the words without the scratch of screams over top.</p><p>Which was exactly why seeing this show was the best of them all.</p><p>Unlike all his shows with Star Destroyers, Steven came out onto the stage with an acoustic guitar in hand and sat at a stool with a pair of microphones. One set up for the guitar and one set up for him to sing. She barely heard him greet the crowd over their enthusiasm at seeing him. What she did hear were the same few songs she had been listening to for weeks. Only this time with twinkly notes and riffs. His voice was much closer to how it sounded at the party in L.A. when he had played for her alone. It had all the same staples of the music genre she had reluctantly come to know too much about and so it was still his style, just a version she liked more. A lot more. She might even say she lov-</p><p>Hearing Steven live again was only beaten out by <em> seeing </em> Steven physically again for the first time in almost two full months. Everything about it felt like it came straight out of a big summertime romcom. It was absolutely magical.</p><p>He was closer than he had been in so long and if she wanted she could sprint forward, jump onto the stage and throw her arms around him. She wasn't about to try that. She was glued to the spot anyway, practically hypnotized by this softer version of his songs and caught up in watching as his fingers moved and sweat dripped from his face from the heat of the stage lights above him. She remembered what those talented hands felt like and the few times she had seen him red-faced and sweaty <em> off </em> stage.</p><p>Connie was completely captivated by him, becoming besotted with him all over again.</p><p>She tried to wave a few times but she was standing too far in the back and even in this small venue that was enough to keep her from his sight. She hoped so anyway. She hated the thought that he saw her and didn't acknowledge her. Steven wouldn't do that though. He had taken a moment to smile her way at almost every show since she started watching him. If he saw her in the crowd he would have shot that sweet, affectionate smile her way at least once.</p><p>It felt like the show took forever to finish. She wasn't sure if it was actually longer than the shows on tour or if she was just that antsy to see him. Either way, she was on the move seconds after he stepped off the stage. During the tour, Max and Connie were often invited to the back by the band. She knew Steven turned his phone off when he went on stage though which meant there was a chance she would be ushered out before she could tell him to get her back there. Connie was going to have to do her best to make Max proud and sneak her way there. </p><p>She didn't seem to have much trouble as Max had rubbed off on her over the years. She was able to slip out the side door as people were piling out and made her way along the side of the building to the back. When she got behind the venue she saw that she wasn't the only one with the idea of finding Steven Universe after the show.</p><p>He was in a crowd of about six or seven other people, some of whom were people she had seen working around the stage (most likely employees). Most of the group was sharing a smoke off to one side, but two young women hovered near Steven by the back door he stood next to, awkwardly scratched his neck. It looked like they were busy fawning all over him. Predictably they each pulled out phones for some pictures. He agreed to it without any hesitation as the girls took turns snapping pictures of the other one with him. Steven sure was friendly with his fans.</p><p>Suddenly Connie felt rude for even being there. She should have called him first or at least sent a text. She should have asked him before she came. Showing up and intruding on his night like this made her no better than those women. It made her no better than the person who had brought up his mom on their first date.</p><p>What the hell was Connie doing?</p><p>She closed her eyes and turned away from the scene. She had a long drive back to her campus. This time she needed to be careful not to speed too  The sooner she got on the road the better. At least it had been nice to see him again…</p><p>"Connie?"</p><p>Steven wasn't 100% sure when he first saw the silhouette but his gut told him that it was her. He knew the shape of her body. He had pictured it in all manner of dress probably about a thousand times since they said their goodbyes. Even still it was a guess as he couldn't be sure. However, he saw the figure go stiff as if it was frozen when he called out her name.</p><p>It <em> was </em> her! It had to be her!</p><p>"Connie!" he called more excitedly before turning back to the pair of girls he'd been talking to, "Sorry, I've got to do something. Happy you enjoyed the show! Conniiieee!"</p><p>Steven raced towards her as she slowly turned around and he saw he'd been right. It was her. He had honestly mistaken a few women in the dark for her in optimism. This time though it actually was Connie. She was there and he couldn't care less if he looked like the most ridiculous idiot in the world. He wasn't letting her get away.</p><p>Connie smiled at him as he reached her. His arms were outstretched and before she said even one word his powerful grip was around her. Steven squeezed her to his body tightly. He practically lifted her up off her feet. His face, either intentionally or unintentionally (she couldn't actually tell) buried into her hair. Her hands smacked against his back on instinct as her fingers almost clawed into him. She didn't know how much she missed touching him until she felt him once again. She breathed in the comforting smell of his natural scent and body spray as she felt him likewise smell her hair. They were thrilled to be in each other's arms and they clung hard to one another for far longer than most would consider needed. They were so desperate to be close that letting go seemed painful.</p><p>Their hands remained on each other even as they pulled apart. Steven reached up to brush his fingers through her hair while running his other hand up along her bicep. Her hands shifted onto his broad chest. They locked eyes in an adoring stare. They both felt it and they both wanted it. So without having even said 'hello' to him yet she pressed her lips to his lips in a kiss brimming with the passion she had built up over so much time.</p><p>It was short but it felt so good.</p><p>"Surprise," she finally said as she pulled back from him. Her voice was as beautiful as he remembered.</p><p>"Yeah, hi," he said, brightly, "I didn't know you were coming tonight. Why didn't you tell me?"</p><p>"Why didn't you tell me you were playing so close to my school?" she countered.</p><p>Steven's smile broke a little from nerves as he internally debated whether to tell her that he wanted to invite her but was afraid she wouldn't show up, "Oh, is your school close by?"</p><p>"It's close enough," Connie said with a raised eyebrow. Steven wasn't a good liar, "It didn't take long. Three hours driving."</p><p>"Yeah, that's not too bad," Steven played with her hair as he spoke, completely in awe of the fact that she was <em> there, </em> "I'm so happy to see you."</p><p>"I'm happy to see you too," she tittered, despite herself. Connie had gone there for a reason. She had gone there specifically to talk to him. She had to tell him about what she had been feeling. She had to address her worries. She had to clear the air with him. She… she… </p><p>She had to kiss him again. Which seemed much more important.</p><p>So she did kiss him, placing her hands on his cheeks, feeling stubble. It was deeper, slower, and more sensual this time around. The hum Steven made let her know that he was not opposed to it. She pulled back just to go in for another kiss. After a few more kisses like that, his hands dropped to her sides. Steven pulled her to him and their bodies fit together in a familiar way. Steven took control of their kiss and Connie submitted to him. She was content to let him lead her in any way he wanted. Her hands moved to fist into either side of his shirt, gripping hard to pull him closer. The fingers of his hand dug into her hair as he supported the back of her head while his other hand traveled further south.</p><p>"Oh," Connie gasped into his mouth when she felt his hand slide <em> under </em> her shirt onto her lower back, her face burned. She was practically melting into him. Steven wasn’t touching her anywhere inappropriate <em> yet </em> but it certainly wasn’t an innocent touch. He could barely help himself though when she was kissing him like that.</p><p>"Maybe we should move this reunion tour somewhere more <em> private," </em> Steven purred up against her mouth before biting his lip. He was interested in sharing conversation with Connie too. However, she had opted for making out and he was perfectly fine with doing that instead.</p><p>"What?" she stuttered. It had been so long since she had been touched in this way. She craved physical connection. Max was great for the occasional friendly cuddles and casual touches but Connie could bury herself in Steven all night.</p><p>"Well, the van isn't too far from here and I've gotten away with more than making out behind a venue." His voice was deep, inviting, and sultry which caused an excited shiver to run through her body. His words however brought her to reality and put her off a bit.</p><p>True they were kissing rather passionately but they had barely spoken to each other since she arrived. Was he really already trying to get her to have sex with him? Steven had never pushed her on the topic but she couldn't help noticing how much he liked to have sex. Her only goal in going to the show had been to see him and it seemed as if his only goal now that she was there was getting her somewhere he could have sex with her. She knew that he'd done <em> a lot </em> more than kiss in that van.</p><p>But not <em> just </em> with Connie.</p><p>Connie extracted herself from his arms. She could tell from the look on his face that Steven was confused. She couldn't blame him. She had pounced on him as soon as she had the chance to yet now she was pulling away. Ever the gentleman, he let her go with no resistance aside from the pout on his face.</p><p>"So I enjoyed the show." She internally cursed herself. Nothing about that had sounded natural.</p><p>"Oh yeah?" he asked, trying to hide how disappointed he was. He had thought that they were past the push and pull thing. Apparently not as she rebuffed his flirting for what must have been the hundredth time. Was she just shy? He was convinced by the way she closed herself off to him afterward he'd been too forward too soon. She might have understood if she knew how <em> frustrated </em> he was recently.</p><p>"Yeah, it's not quite the same as when you play with the band," Connie said, noting the clear difference she picked up on.</p><p>"Yeah, it's nice to do my thing when I'm not playing with the guys," Steven said then nervously he looked around the area, "What about Max? What did she think?"</p><p>Connie flushed as she confessed to him, "Max isn't here. I came alone."</p><p>Steven's heart fluttered at the admission. He wasn't stupid. Connie wasn't interested in his music. She barely understood it. Max was the fan who had dragged her on the tour that summer. If Connie was there without Max then that meant she hadn't come for the show. She had come for <em> him. </em></p><p>The kissing should have given it away but hearing her say that was real confirmation. He was mad at himself for messing up while making out because he wanted to kiss her so much.</p><p>Connie rocked on her feet. She looked at the people by the backdoor behind him. They only occasionally spared the couple a glance. Except the two who had been starstruck by Steven. They looked over quite a bit. They seemed hopeful he would come back soon. They reminded her more of why she was even there and as much as she wanted to let him drag her off to cover her in kisses and touches she had come for a reason.</p><p>Connie grabbed hold of Steven's hand as she said, "Let's go for a walk."</p><p>Steven raised an eyebrow, looking around the lot. "There isn't much to see unless roadkill, broken bottles and half-smoked cigarettes are your thing. Then you're in for a treat."</p><p>"The moon is pretty," she said, looking up.</p><p>"Yeah, it is," he agreed, also looking up.</p><p>"And you're not awful to look at either." She looked back at him.</p><p>"Gee, thanks. I appreciate the honesty." He met her gaze.</p><p>They smiled. Steven pat Connie's hand with his free hand. Then while swinging their locked hands, he led them into the parking lot for their romantic walk under the moonlight. Steven stuffed his other hand in his pocket while Connie crossed her free arm to grab her shoulder hugging her chest. They walked in silence. It was not an uncomfortable silence but he could tell something was sat between them.</p><p>He attempted to start a conversation but she beat him to it.</p><p>"Do you play by yourself a lot?" she asked, trying to convince herself she was keeping the conversation going and wasn't asking how often he was alone with other girls.</p><p>He shrugged, "I wouldn't say a lot but I do. I prefer to play with the guys but at least this gives me something to do whenever they all decide to go home to their families for a few weeks."</p><p>"Why don't you visit your family too?" Connie asked, quite innocently. She didn't know enough about Steven to know that she was stepping into a minefield.</p><p>"Well," he said as he rubbed the back of his head, "I don't really have any family to visit when I'm not playing."</p><p>"What?" she asked, grabbing his arm to comfort him out of instinct, "What about your dad?"</p><p>"Dad works a lot," he said with a shrug then gave an oddly sad smile, "It's always been like that. When I was young, he used to drive me around in his van to meetings and shows all over the country. He's barely at his place in Nashville. It's okay though. Dad comes to a lot of my shows. The ones that he can make anyway. He really loves his job."</p><p>"It seems like he really loves you too," Connie said, remembering when she met Greg Universe and how much he cared for his son. She stroked Steven's arm gently with her soft touches. The hair on his arm stood up when she did.</p><p>"He does," Steven looked away from her as he said, "Sometimes though that love doesn't always feel like enough."</p><p>Connie looked up at his face lovingly as if she wanted to pet his cheeks and cover it in kisses. Probably because she did want to do exactly that. She held herself back.</p><p>Instead, she simply said, "I know exactly what you mean."</p><p>Steven looked over at her when she said she understood. He wondered what things were like with her parents. She didn't talk about her family any more than he did his. Her words had sounded genuine though and so he got the impression it wasn't an empty sentiment. Suddenly he felt very sad for her and very grateful to have her with him.</p><p>“I’m really glad you came tonight,” he said, pulling her close by her hand. She thought to fight him but couldn’t bring herself to. She wanted to be closer to him. He was like a powerful magnet that couldn’t help but pull her near. Once they were almost touching bodies again, he circled the top of her hand with his thumb. She saw him lean in out of the corner of her eye right before she felt the soft press on his lips on her cheek. Again she wished to pull away, instead she let him stay there a moment, making the kiss linger. Then he shifted until his lips were right next to her ear as they walked and whispered, “You’re so much more beautiful in person.”</p><p>“What is it with you and that word?” she snorted, laughing. She pulled away again, trying to hide all the things that his words did to her, both physically and emotionally, “I’m starting to wonder if it’s a tick.”</p><p>“Huh? What do you mean?” </p><p>“The way some people say “Like” all the time,” Connie explained as they walked hand in hand, “You say “Beautiful” all the time.”</p><p>“Hey! I don’t say it all the time,” he playfully complained, “I just say it a lot when I’m around you.”</p><p>“Why’s that?” she teased, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear him say it again. Many people might be sick of the compliment at this point but she wasn’t. She could listen to him say it all day. She could lose herself in it. She often did.</p><p>“Because you are beautiful,” he said, lifting her hand to hold in both of his hands. He wanted to cherish this girl forever. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her again. He wanted her more than any girl before. Steven never wanted there to be another after Connie. “I can’t help telling you that.”</p><p>Connie looked away from him and saw that his van was in sight. She had no interest in that moment of repeating their last activity inside the vehicle. Actually, having no interest was a lie, her interest in sex with Steven was still very high, in fact. However other more important things were on her mind as well.</p><p>She ended up leading them over that way. She'd never been to this city and the van was a symbol of comfort despite how dirty and run-down it was. She shared a few good moments with him there from cuddling to stargazing. It was something she knew. Maybe she thought going there would bring back the feeling of the tour. The time where, as strange as it all was, it somehow made more sense than… this current feeling.</p><p>Steven noticed where she chose to lead him and followed after. He didn’t get his hopes up because she wasn't leading him over there in any way he would describe as sexy. Though in his mind Connie was always sexy. She had cut their kissing short too. Instead he also began to worry. She wanted to get him alone somewhere comfortable where they could talk about what seemed to be something she found to be serious. His heartbeat quickened as fear gripped him. </p><p>Was Connie breaking up with him? </p><p>As much as she could anyway as the two weren’t strictly dating. The point here was she was taking him to a private and quiet place to end whatever had been going on between them since the summer. He just knew that's what was happening. Why else would she be so distant and serious?</p><p>Connie let go of him when they reached the van as if waiting. Steven understood what it was she was expecting of him after a second and pulled out his key. She stood by silently whilst he very slowly unlocked the doors, trying to delay what he feared was coming to him. He opened the back and waited to see if she climbed in to sit. When she had sat down, he followed after her with a deep breath to brace himself.</p><p>"It's always weird to see you with fans," she said when he joined her in the van. She decided to start with that. It wasn't like her to ease into sharing her thoughts and feelings. She was usually quite free with her tongue. However, she could sense this situation was delicate and needed to be handled with care.</p><p>"Is it?" he said, looking in the direction to where the pair of girls were possibly still waiting for him. "I don't notice it, I guess. But then people have recognized me for most of my life. It might just be too normal at this point to bother me too much."</p><p>"Yeah but those girls came to see you," she argued.</p><p>"They came to see me<em> play," </em> he corrected, optimism lining all of his words, "You came to see <em> me." </em></p><p>"I don't know about that," she continued, knowing she had to get to her point soon, "They seemed pretty enamored by that Universe charm."</p><p>"What does that mean?" His heart froze.</p><p>There was a streetlight overhead that gave off enough light through the front window for them to see each other. Connie's face was serious and he wasn't completely sure what it meant. He furrowed his brow at her. He looked upset and she felt bad about it. That didn't deter her, however. She had to tell him. She couldn't keep beating around the bush.</p><p>"Steven, I…" she started forcing herself to look at him, "I try not to look up anything about you. I swear I do."</p><p>"But?" he asked. He frantically searched his history in his head. What could Connie have found out about him that was going to drive her away? How could he prevent this from happening?</p><p>"But I like looking at pictures of you online. I don't have any pictures of you so it's nice to see you sometimes."</p><p>"Oh." He wanted to believe that was the end of it. She just wanted to tell him how nice it was that his moderate amount of fame granted her the ability to see him whenever she wanted. It didn't matter if she had pictures of him because pictures of him already existed all over the internet. He knew there had to be more though and there was.</p><p>Connie sighed, "There's a lot of girls that say they've had sex with you."</p><p>"You already knew I had sex before you," he defended. It wasn't fair. Was she really about to get on his case for girls he slept with before he knew her? Steven wouldn't have touched a single one if he knew that he was going to meet Connie someday.</p><p>"It's… a lot of girls…" she clarified.</p><p>"I don't understand what you are trying to say to me." He had a guess or two about where she was going with this. He wanted to believe better of Connie. She wasn't like the other ones. Connie cared about him. Connie saw him for who he was. He had to believe she knew better than this.</p><p>It was hard for her to even say but she had to know. She needed things to be clear between them and this was the best place to start. "I guess I'm asking how many girls you've had sex with."</p><p>Steven brought his hand to his mouth and bit his cuticle. "That depends."</p><p>"On what?"</p><p>"What counts as sex?"</p><p>She thought about the question. It seemed like he was trying to hide his actual number based off of a few technicalities. She wasn't letting him get away with that.</p><p>"Purposeful pleasuring of one another's genitals in an attempt to achieve orgasm."</p><p>He cleared his throat, "So we're counting mouths, hands, grinding, and penetration?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>Steven sighed, wishing he didn't know the number off the top of his head but he did. "Sixty-eight."</p><p>"Sixty-eight?!" she cried out. That was a<em> much </em> higher number than the one she had counted, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"</p><p>"Sixty-nine," Steven corrected after a moment of thought, "If I count you too."</p><p>"That didn't already include me?!"</p><p>"Well, why would I lump you in with them?" he rationalized, "You aren't like those girls! You're different! You're special!"</p><p>Connie crossed her arms and turned away from him. She wasn't sure what she had expected Steven to say but 'I've had sex with more people then there have been United States Presidents' was not it.</p><p>"Are you… mad at me?" he asked with a tremble in his voice. He'd been so happy to see her. He'd missed her like an ache that got worse with each day. He'd pictured so many versions of what meeting her in person again would be like. Other than their greeting and the kissing, it was not living up to his fantasies.</p><p>"That depends."</p><p>"On what?"</p><p>Connie looked back over at him, sadly, "How many of them have been after me?"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"How many girls have you slept with since you slept with me?"</p><p>"N-none."</p><p>"None?"</p><p>"Yeah," he confirmed, "None. Nada. Zero." —Steven scratched the back of his head— "Is that… the only reason you came out to see me tonight? Just to make sure I wasn't cheating on you?"</p><p>"Of course not!" Connie said, noticing how heartbroken he looked by the idea, "I came because I wanted to see you! I think about you all the time. I've missed you so much!"</p><p>"Well, then why all the questions about-" Steven shifted into her personal space, "Why does it matter to you how many girls I've been with?"</p><p>"It doesn't matter." Connie shifted closer to him as well. There was not a hint of a lie on his face. She felt like a weight was lifted off her chest. No girl in the past mattered and it seemed to him she was the only one who mattered in the present. Hearing that none of them had been after her was all that she really cared about as far as Steven and other girls were concerned.</p><p>"So why did you ask?"</p><p>"I guess," she thought a moment then answered honestly, "Well it wouldn't have really been cheating if you did, would it?"</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"You and I never- We never agreed that we were exclusive. We never talked about not sleeping with other people. So if you were sleeping with other girls than that would be okay and I'm not okay with that."</p><p>Steven was genuinely confused by what she was saying, "But why would I want to sleep with anyone else?"</p><p>"You meet a lot of beautiful women."</p><p>"Not as beautiful as you."</p><p>She flushed again. Every time he said that it was with complete sincerity. He sounded like he really believed she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met in his life. He probably did believe it. She felt herself get hot in all the most important places. Connie had almost forgotten how beautiful and special Steven made her feel.</p><p>"You know," he said, invading her space and brushing her hair from her face to tuck behind her ear, "Sex with you is better than all of those other girls combined."</p><p>"There is no way that's true," she muttered looking to the floor but he still heard her. </p><p>"It is true," he said, putting his finger under her chin to lift her head up. Steven was close to her in height however it still felt like he towered over her in that moment.</p><p>"Steven…"</p><p>He kissed her cheek, "You're the prettiest," then he kissed her forehead, "smartest," he kissed her nose, "most passionate," he kissed under her glasses by her eye, "most amazing," he kissed the corner of her mouth, "and sexiest woman I have ever met in my life."</p><p>He kissed her mouth then ran his thumb along her lips gently as he finished with, "And I will do anything to make you understand that I don't want to be with anyone else but you."</p><p>The way Connie's body went weak made her almost forget why she was there and what she wanted. All she could think about was how badly she wanted him to kiss her. Connie swallowed to regain some of her lost composure, "I just need to know that you're serious about me."</p><p>Steven shifted his hand to hold the side of her face and she cuddled into his palm. She would swear Steven's touch could sustain her. She could survive on it alone. Softly, he said as he smiled sweetly at her, "Connie, I have never been this serious about anything."</p><p>"Me too." She hated the way she stuttered when she said that. Steven made her feel so girlish and it was embarrassingly silly. "I've never wanted to be with another guy the way I want to be with you." </p><p>"Then…" Steven looked down just as shyly as she did. He had never asked this of a girl before. He wanted to on more than one occasion but he never got to. Her words gave him confidence though. With Connie, he felt safe enough to ask, "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"</p><p>"Oh, gosh," she said, more taken aback by his question than she would expect herself to be. She giggled as she said, "I've never really had a boyfriend before…"</p><p>He giggled too, saying, "Well, I've never really been a boyfriend before…"</p><p>"Oh yeah?" She tilted her head to the side as she considered him, "That's a shame. Because I think you would be really good at it."</p><p>Steven smirked. "Is that a 'yes' then?"</p><p>"It's a 'yes,' Steven."</p><p>Steven took her hands into his hands and quickly pressed a kiss to her lips. He kept the kiss short and sweet. A gentle peck as a confirmation that as of that moment Connie and Steven were officially dating.</p><p>She smiled against his mouth. She kissed him again as if to double confirm their new relationship status. They traded off soft and gentle kisses <em> as a couple. </em> Neither had ever taken this step with someone. It was another first. They had experienced so many things together that they had never experienced with anyone else. They had a bond that ran deep.</p><p>Connie giggled softly as Steven shifted to lay kisses along her jaw. His lips traveled to the spot where her jaw met her neck. His hands went to her waist as his mouth dropped to her neck. He drew her body into his as those moans he would never tire of escaped her throat. His pelvic area flexed with desire. He gave her one tiny love bite near her shoulder which caused her to let out a mewl of surprise pleasure. He growled roughly into her flesh. She had no idea what she did to him.</p><p>Steven took a gamble and asked her as his finger traced circles on her upper thigh, "So where are you staying tonight?"</p><p>Connie groaned in sadness, "I'm not."</p><p>"Huh?" He groaned in sadness too.</p><p>"I'm driving back tonight," she told him with a heavy sigh, "I have class tomorrow."</p><p>"But it's almost midnight," Steven said as if she didn't already know that.</p><p>"I'll be back at my dorm by four, five at the latest. I'll get a few hours of sleep before I have to go to class."</p><p>"Will you be okay driving?" Steven asked, holding her shoulders tightly with concern, "What if you get sleepy?"</p><p>"I'll be okay. I've become an expert at long drives across state lines."</p><p>Steven pressed a kiss to her forehead, "Will you at least let me buy you a coffee?"</p><p>"A <em> big </em> coffee?" she teased while wiggling her eyebrows playfully.</p><p>"Only as big as they make it at the diner down the road from here," he teased back, knowing her suggestion wasn't serious but also not caring much.</p><p>"Oh well," she sighed, "It will have to do."</p><p>Steven laughed as he pulled Connie out of his van so they could switch to sitting in the front seats. He figured he could buy her dinner then drop her back at her car before he had to sleep himself. She didn't mind at all. She was happy to be with him.</p><p>The diner he saw earlier was still open and still willing to serve them. It was mostly empty save a few graveyard shift workers. They each got something light to eat and Steven bought a large coffee for Connie. He sat on the same side of the booth as she did rather than sitting across the table. It made it easier to kiss her if he wanted to. Which was good because he always wanted to.</p><p>They were half-way through their meal when their waitress (a woman easily old enough to have mothered either of them) said kindly, "Excuse me but I have to say, you two are such a good-looking couple." </p><p>"Oh, thanks," Steven said politely while putting his arm around Connie, who simply nodded shyly. He was used to strangers speaking to him out of nowhere whereas she wasn't. Although hearing himself and Connie referred to as a "couple" sparked a childlike glee inside of him. The woman poured more coffee for Connie then walked off as he said in a quiet but giddy voice, "That was nice of her to say."</p><p>"Yeah." The wheels in Connie's head were turning and she quickly spun around to call out to the waitress, Steven following her movement with his eyes, "Wait! Please!"</p><p>"Yes? Can I help you?" the woman asked, stepping back over to them.</p><p>"Will you take our picture?" Connie asked, digging her phone out.</p><p>"Of course, sweetheart," the woman said, putting down her coffee pot.</p><p>"Oh sorry," Steven said, waving his hand at the waitress, "No pictures."</p><p>"Ste-ven," Connie moaned then handed her phone off to the woman, "Ignore him."</p><p>"Okay, okay," he teased as she pulled him closer to her to set them up for the picture. Then he whispered, "Anything for a fan."</p><p>"I wouldn't call myself a fan," she said as the woman got Connie's camera set up.</p><p>"A groupie then?"</p><p>"Try girlfriend."</p><p>"Yeah, that's the one," Steven hummed as he wrapped his arms around Connie.</p><p>"Ready?" the woman asked.</p><p>"Ready!" they said together.</p>
<hr/><p>Max knew she should be asleep. A whole day with a family as big as hers would take a lot out of anyone. However, she found herself awake as her two littlest cousins slept peacefully in the bigger bed on the other side of the room and her big-little cousin shared her bed. She was scrolling on her phone when an InstaSnap account she was still following despite its inactivity posted for the first time in months.</p><p>Connie and Steven sitting in a diner booth with their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Someone had taken a few pictures of the pair together but in the last one, Connie twisted her head so that she and Steven could kiss. It was captioned, "Late night diner date with my boyfriend after his show in St. Louis!"</p><p>With a smile, Max tapped the little heart on her screen.</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. I've Been So Lost for So Long</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Steven's on his way to an important meeting in L.A. when he decides to swing by Jayhawk University to spend time with his new girlfriend, Connie Maheswaran, and discovers something about her and their relationship he didn't expect.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steven DeMayo had been called many things over his life.</p><p>Steven Universe, the musical prodigy. Child of industry legend Greg Universe and the late, great Rose Quartz of the Gems. The lead singer, frontman, and main songwriter of Midwestern Emo band, Star Destroyers. He had been called these among many others, both much less and much more impressive things. However that being said, his favorite title yet was one he had only recently acquired.</p><p>Boyfriend.</p><p>Despite having just turned twenty-three and his vast amount of experience with women he had never been in a serious relationship before. In fact, he had never been involved in anything even vaguely resembling a relationship. He embodied the motto of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that came with his lifestyle. Not by choice, mind you. Steven always wanted more out of his sexual encounters. He never wanted to be a ladies man, not tied to one woman, sowing wild oats. He very much wanted to be tied down, sowing no oats. He had just never been lucky enough to actually get it.</p><p>That was until a little over two months ago when on his first cross-country tour he had met and successfully charmed the most amazing girl in all existence; Connie Maheswaran. She was smart, fun, passionate, sweet, articulate, strong-willed, funny, sophisticated, talented, humble, witty, compassionate, and heart-stoppingly beautiful.</p><p>And Steven got to be her <em> boyfriend! </em></p><p>It was by far the best thing he’d got out of the tour. The second best thing was the opportunities a successful tour had afforded the band. Neither Steven nor the rest of Star Destroyers had explicit goals to be massively famous. They played for the love of playing and while having fans was nice and being able to play music for a living was a blessing they were content to stay mostly in their own circle. With that said, they certainly weren't against a moderate increase in notoriety and fame. Something the tour had granted them. Their manager (who was also Steven's father) said he had exciting news about their future to share with them but wanted to discuss the details in person. Which meant packing up to go see him.</p><p>Normally Greg worked out of Nashville and Steven lived right outside Nashville (truthfully, in part to be somewhat close to his dad). So usually this would just have meant a quick trip into the city. However, Greg sometimes traveled for work as well and he was out in L.A. for the week. Sour Cream and Buck were already in L.A. as the former happened to be "visiting" his own father and the latter had gone along as “emotional support.” Steven decided to make the drive out there while Jenny was flying out instead. She was hanging out with her family in Washington DC. because her grandmother was some kind of politician. Steven didn't know anything about that.</p><p>"Are you sure you're going to be able to make the drive, son?" his dad asked over the phone as Steven packed up his van.</p><p>"Don't worry, Dad," Steven said, tossing his skateboard in the backseat. He was not missing out on the L.A. skating scene this time around. He had been… distracted by more important things during his first visit to the city of angels. Fittingly by an actual angel, herself. "It's only a little over a day's worth of driving. I can handle it."</p><p>"I can get you a plane ticket if you need me to," his father pushed and Steven sighed internally. His dad was always trying to give him money or pay for things. Steven didn't want that. He could take care of himself.</p><p>"I like driving," he said as he climbed into the driver's seat, which wasn't a lie. "Besides, I've got somewhere I want to stop on my way there."</p><p>"You're not going to meet with other managers are you?" his dad teased, "Because whatever they offer you I can guarantee you a better deal."</p><p>"No way," Steven laughed fondly, "I've got the best representation in the business!"</p><p>"So then,” Greg continued. Steven could hear people on the other end of the line. Still, he had his dad’s full attention. “What is this mystery trip you're going on?"</p><p>Steven flushed and was happy his father wasn't there to see it. "I was just thinking I'd stop and see Connie at school. It’s on the way over."</p><p>"Oh? Is that so?" His dad teased again. </p><p>"It's gonna be a short visit. Just a quickie." Steven didn't register his choice of words until after he'd already spoken them out loud and frantically clarified, "Wait- Not- I- I don't mean like that!"</p><p>"Relax, schtu-ball. I know what you mean," Greg laughed awkwardly over the call then his voice softened as leadingly he said, "It sure sounds like things with you two lovebirds are going well."</p><p>"Daaaddd…" he moaned, embarrassed as he was fiddling with his keys. However as if unable to help himself, he continued, "Yeah, I think they are."</p><p>"You should bring her along!" Greg said and was only half-kidding, "I have got to meet this girl!"</p><p>"You've already met her."</p><p>"Not as your girlfriend I haven't."</p><p>Steven's heart did a double beat at hearing the word. Connie was Steven's girlfriend! He cleared his throat in hopes of also clearing his smitten brain, "You'll see her again soon, I promise."</p><p>"I'm looking forward to it," Greg said and then someone on the other side of the line with him spoke to him for some time and Steven heard his dad say, ‘yeah, yeah,’ before he continued, "I’ve got to go. You know how it is, everybody wants a piece of ol’ Mr. Universe. But I'll talk to you soon. Love you, kiddo."</p><p>"Love you too, Dad," Steven said, inserting the key into the ignition. After that, he hung up and leaned his head on the steering wheel to gather his thoughts before he got on the road. He was excited to see Connie but also nervous. He didn’t feel too weird about it as she had just dropped in to see him by surprise at his show in St. Louis. Speaking honestly Steven had found that incredibly romantic. He hoped she felt the same when he surprised her at her school. He was still new at being a boyfriend and he didn’t want to mess it up. His dad was right. Things with Connie had been going well. Very well. Texting dozens of times throughout the day and talking almost every night on the phone until they fell asleep well. He missed her like an ache that never gave him relief. Even when they video chat and he could see her shy, beautiful face as she laughed with him. He had never been so in lov-</p><p>Suddenly overcome with the need to be close to her once again, he turned on the engine and headed west for California and more importantly, Connie!</p><p>The trip to Jayhawk University was going to add time to his drive. Time to get there as well as the time he actually wanted to spend with Connie once he got there. Steven was turning about a day's worth of driving into more like a day and a half. It was going to be worth it because Steven was visiting Connie. His girlfriend. His girlfriend, Connie. Connie who was his girlfriend. Because he had a girlfriend now and it was Connie!</p><p>He could barely contain himself!</p><p>It hadn't been long since she came out to see him play and they made their relationship official. Twenty-one days if one was counting. If Steven was counting, which he was. He had counted every day that had passed before seeing her again after the tour too. Thirty-four. A full month and change between their goodbyes and his show in Missouri. He never wanted to go so long without seeing Connie again. That's why this trip to L.A. was the perfect excuse to visit her at her school.</p><p>Steven had almost danced in glee when he found out the University of Jayhawk was about an eight-hour drive from Nashville so for him, it was closer to nine. That wasn't a short distance but it was easily doable in one day for someone seasoned in travel the way he was. Weekend visits were more than possible! He would even say they were to be expected. This was just the first of many trips between Jayhawk and Nashville for them both!</p><p>He had left mid-morning hoping to hit Connie's school by late afternoon before he had to get back on the road for Los Angeles that night. He hoped he had given himself enough time to rest on the trip. Even if he hadn't he would still rather lose a week’s worth of sleep and see her then be well-rested and miss out on seeing her. He felt so much for her. Things he’d never felt for anyone else.</p><p>Steven couldn't wait to see Connie again.</p><p>The drive to her school was nowhere near the longest trip he had taken but it sure felt like it when he finally pulled up near the building Connie lived in. Finding a place to park the van had been a bit of a nightmare but eventually, he found somewhere close enough to the dorm that the walk would be short. The place was packed with much nicer cars than his though there were plenty of vehicles in need of some TLC as well. Some students were just hanging out in the parking lot, looking like they were up to mischief. They were probably smoking weed and normally he might be tempted to make some new friends and join in. However, Steven felt the small piece of paper with her information on it in his hand. He had no desire to get high at that moment as Connie was a much more satisfying drug. So he was off to find her room.</p><p>He had to get someone to open the door for him because apparently, dorms didn't let just any strange man enter and wander around the building. That was probably a good idea. Nobody stopped him or asked him where he was going though. The place was easy enough to navigate his way through and soon enough Steven was standing outside a door with a number matching the one on his slip of paper. His face broke out into a wide smile, knowing how close he was to seeing Connie.</p><p>Steven knocked far too violently on the door, overcome with joy at just the idea of seeing her. He heard the door opening. All of a sudden he got nervous about Connie seeing <em> him </em>. He hadn’t thought about how he looked or what he would say or anything like that. It made no sense as she liked him already but he wanted to make a good impression. He wanted her to swoon upon seeing him.</p><p>So as if he had no control over himself and almost unaware he was doing it, he leaned his arm against the top of the door frame in what he hoped looked like a sexy pose. </p><p>"Hey, beautiful," Steven purred lovingly as the door opened, tilting his head forward until his face was only inches apart from the face at the door. It would probably have been incredibly sexy…</p><p>… if Connie had been the one who opened the door.</p><p>"What the fuck?" the young woman yelled, jumping back from the door and flailing her hands, trying to swat him away. Steven jumped back as well in an attempt to avoid her blows. She was smacking her hands at him in a frenzy, "Get out of my face, you fucking weirdo! I'm warning you. I have watched every Bruce Lee movie on Netflix and I will go kung-fu fighting on your pervert ass!"</p><p>"Max," Steven called out to the girl once he saw who it was. Her eyes were shut as she tried to whack him away and his hands were up to block her hands from hitting him in the face, "Relax! It's just me! It's Steven!"</p><p>"Steven…?" Max asked, opening her eyes and putting down her hands. On the flip of a dime, her expression brightened, "Oh, hey, dude! What’s up?"</p><p>"Hey, it’s nice to see you, too," Steven said, taking a step closer now that she wasn't smacking her hands at him.</p><p>Max looked him up and down then at the door frame, "Why were you feeling up our door?"</p><p>Steven felt one of his eyes squinting and the other eyebrow raise in an expression of confusion and discomfort. "Oh I was-"</p><p>"Do you have some kind of door fetish?"</p><p>"What? No! I-"</p><p>"I'm certainly not judging you for it but maybe should keep that kind of stuff out of the public eye. Not that I care. If a man wants to love a door I say let him be free to. But the rest of society may not understand."</p><p>"Right." Steven looked either way down the hallway then at Max.</p><p>“Also I hope you’ve shared this kink of yours Connie. Communication is important in relationships and I’d hate to think you didn’t feel comfortable being honest with her about sexual things. If you need mediation, please don’t ask me. I would be terrible at it-”</p><p>"Speaking of Connie,” Steven cut in, not willing to continue this conversation, “Is she here?"</p><p>"Nope," Max said simply, she was hiding from the embarrassment of her encounter with him by talking too much. Like she always did, "She's off trying to earn a decent living to care for us and our child. But to be honest with you in this economy it's not looking too good."</p><p>"What child?" Steven asked, trying to keep up with his girlfriend's eccentric best friend.</p><p>"Stephen Space Wolf," she explained, "He's your band's mascot, remember?"</p><p>"Yeah, I remember." Steven looked around the hall again, "Do you think you could text Connie for me? I would but I really want to surprise her…"</p><p>Max took note of that. Connie didn’t know Steven was here to see her. Good. She knew Connie would have told her if Steven was coming. There is no way her close friend would have put her in this awkward situation intentionally. Max shrugged, "I can but Connie usually turns her phone off at work."</p><p>"Oh." Steven started to scratch the back of his head. He realized as much as he had wanted to surprise her, this might have been a bad idea. He should’ve called ahead or planned it with her. He was trying to be spontaneous and romantic but maybe he was just being silly. Was he even going to get to see her before he had to get back on the road?</p><p>"Yeah," Max confirmed with a nod, "Which is dumb because she just sits behind a desk in the computer lab all day until someone needs her help. I would be on my phone the whole time but she does her homework!"</p><p>"Well, do you know when she'll be back?" Steven asked, hopefully, ignoring most of what Max said to focus solely on his goal of seeing Connie.</p><p>Max lifted her arm to push back her sleeve and stare intensely at her wrist as she said, "I don't own a watch. My concept of time is limited.” —she dropped her arm and looked at him— “But it should probably only be about an hour."</p><p>"Really? That's not long!" He perked up as he heard that. He could wait an hour for Connie to show up. It might be the longest hour of his life but was still bearable. "Thanks, Max."</p><p>"No problemo," she answered then added, "Did you know if we were in space a single hour on Earth would take seven years. Pretty wild, right?" </p><p>"Yeah." Steven nodded, having no idea how else to respond to that.</p><p>Steven and Max stood in the doorway facing each other for about another thirty seconds. Neither sure what to do now that their conversation was essentially over. Max had spent a decent amount of time with every member of Star Destroyers on the summer tour except Steven. He found himself far too busy drooling over and dicking down Connie to hang out with Max. As a result, the two didn't really know each other that well. At least not as well as Steven knew Connie or Max knew the rest of the band.</p><p>"I guess I'll just…" Steven looked around the hall again, not sure where his sentence was going to end. "Go wait in my van or something for an hour.</p><p>Max nodded and watched him turn to walk back down the hallway. Suddenly it hit her that Steven Universe, the lead singer of her favorite band, was in her dorm and as much time as she spent with the band on the tour it was still a little amazing. He was <em> inside her dorm. </em>Because he was dating her best friend. The tour seemed like it had happened forever ago and she'd forgotten just how cool it felt to hang out with actual rock stars!</p><p>"Hey, wait," Max called out, trying not to sound desperate for him to stay, which if she was being honest she kind of was. Both because Steven was the frontman of her favorite band and because he was the guy Connie was dating and she should try to be nice to him. Yeah, that was definitely part of it.</p><p>"Huh? What's up?" Steven asked, facing her again.</p><p>Max cleared her throat, "You want to wait for her here? I've got three different kinds of Doritos and more than five years worth of my favorite records on vinyl."</p><p>Steven's eyes lit up at the word "vinyl" and he stepped closer, pulling a thinking face, "Hmm what kind of Doritos?"</p><p>"Uhh," Max said, confused why that's what Steven was asking about, "Cool Ranch, Nacho Cheese and Flaming Hot, I think."</p><p>Steven laughed, "Cool! So do you have any records by Star Destroyers?"</p><p>"Do I?!" Max answered in glee, realizing he was kidding around earlier. She forced herself to regain composure, "Yeah, I have every single release actually..."</p><p>He looked at her skeptically but also felt flattered by it. It was genuinely super neat to have fans. Cool fans like Max anyway. "Test presses?"</p><p>"Man, who do you think I am?" She scoffed at him, "Of course I do! Do you know how much it cost me? Your fans are thieves!"</p><p>Steven wandered over to his girlfriend's roommate. "Alright, show me your collection then."</p><p>"Prepare to be blown away, Mr. Universe."</p><p>Max led Steven into the suite and then into her room. He quickly found she had not been kidding when she said she owned a lot of vinyl. There were so many she had dedicated her entire closet to her records and player, leaving little room for her clothes. It looked like she had a significant amount of her wardrobe stored on a desk chair. Steven didn't want to admit it but it definitely outdid his own selection of vinyl. She took a full five minutes to pick one out before playing it for him. It was always cool to hear his own songs on record. It was cool that people like her enjoyed his stuff. It always felt good to know people really resonated with his music. Max also had a wall flag of album covers on one wall and a collage of ticket stubs from the shows she had gone to on her door. The walls were covered in pictures and posters.</p><p>"So then I take it you go to a lot of gigs?" Steven asked as he examined the collage as the second record she played finished.</p><p>"Oh yeah, when time allows it." Max was flipping through more of her  records, "College can get a little much sometimes, but I try to go to local shows."</p><p>"I wish I could go to more gigs. I'm usually too busy playing shows to go to see any."</p><p>"That's a bummer," Max said abandoning her current box for another to find the vinyl she wanted to show Steven, "You guys were my first tour though. Never followed a band before."</p><p>"Was it your first Star Destroyers show?" Steven said, taking her place at the box she lost interest in.</p><p>"Nah, I saw you guys when you played up in Michigan once."</p><p>"Oh yeah, when?"</p><p>"A year or two ago when I was home for the summer." Max had to shift some stuff in her closet, "Buck broke one of the pegs on the top of his guitar and had to use the support band's Squire. Didn't look like he enjoyed that."</p><p>Steven watched her, feeling bad the show she mentioned wasn't a clearer memory but they'd had many shows over the years. She moved something out of the way and into his sight while she searched.</p><p>"Cool, is that yours?" Steven asked of the instrument when it was placed in his sight. What could he say? Steven loved guitars.</p><p>"Huh?" Max said as she looked over at it, "Yeah, it's mine."</p><p>"May I check it out?" he asked, pointing to the guitar.</p><p>"Yeah, sure," Max said, still searching and trying not to sound too excited that one of her favorite musicians was about to touch her guitar. This was so awesome. She was getting to hang out with Steven Universe off tour! As if he was actually her friend! Though to be honest outside being a semi-famous musician she respected, Steven was a cool guy. Max understood why Connie liked him so much.</p><p>Steven stood up then picked the guitar up. He looked it over before shaking his head as he teased, "Really? You play a Gibson? I thought you were serious about music…"</p><p>"Yo, fuck off," Max laughed as she noted the friendly tone that indicated he didn't mean it as a genuine diss, "That baby was a gift from my dad."</p><p>Steven laughed as well leaning back on the nearby windowsill. He actually thought guitar snobs who hated Gibsons were being ridiculous. He had been raised as a lover of all though and didn't hate much. He held the guitar the way he had been taught to ever since he was still a little kid. He strummed it once and heard how off-key it was. With a look of mild distaste, he began to mess with the knobs up above the neck.</p><p>"Oh yeah, I forgot," Max said, giving up on her search, "I go pretty hard when I play so it's probably out of tune. Here let me get my tuner."</p><p>"No, I got it," Steven said as his hands continued to move.</p><p>"There is no way you can tune that by ear." Max dug in her desk for her tuner. It took her a minute and by the time she got it out, Steven was done.</p><p>Steven plucked a few strings when he was finished messing with it. Max joined him with her tuner already in her hand and switched on. He played a few notes, perfectly in tune. He smiled at Max when he was done. She looked impressed.</p><p>"Okay, that's pretty cool."</p><p>"Thanks," Steven said a little smugly, proud of his abilities with music. He unconsciously began to play. It was second nature to him and he barely had to think about it. He was having a nice time with Max, genuinely, as she was fun to hang out with. It had been over an hour though and still no Connie. He would need to get back on the road to meet his dad eventually. He had hours but was still getting nervous he would miss her. His heart felt heavy. What could she be doing?</p><p>"What's that?" Max asked, bringing Steven out of his concentration.</p><p>"Huh?" he asked back, looking at her.</p><p>"What you were playing," she clarified, "I've never heard it before and I've heard every one of your songs. Solo stuff included."</p><p>Steven blushed, setting the guitar down, "That was just something I've been working on for our next album."</p><p>Max's eyes lit up and her smile widened at the words "new album." Steven didn't feel like sharing too much about it yet though. It was still in the early, embarrassing stage of development and needed a lot of work. He cleared his throat roughly then asked, "You got anything to drink?"</p><p>Max tried to hide her disappointment but respected his clear desire not to discuss his creative process. Still smiling, she said, "Yeah, come on."</p><p>The two wandered out of her room into the common area they shared. Still no sign of the other girl. So she had not come home while they were listening to Max's records and they didn't notice. Max went for the tiny fridge they had in what could hardly be called a dining area. Taking a seat at the tiny table, he tried not to stare longingly at the door like a dog waiting for its owner.</p><p>"All we have is water and beer?" Max said, kneeling at the fridge. </p><p>"Either is fine," Steven said, barely paying attention to her. He continued to glance at the dorm suite's door. With it now in sight, he could think of nothing but Connie and how badly he wanted to see her again.</p><p>An open beer bottle was soon placed on the table in front of him. He looked over to see Max sit with him, holding a beer for herself as well. She smirked out of the corner of her mouth as she took a drink. Then after a soft burp said, "Don't worry. She probably just got held up."</p><p>Steven played with the label of the bottle without taking a drink. He focused his eyes there instead of the door. "I'm not worried. I'm just looking forward to seeing her."</p><p>"Good," Max said, even though she knew he was lying about not being worried, "Because Connie likes you. A whole lot. It's gross."</p><p>"She does?" Steven couldn't help himself from asking despite the fact Connie had proven she liked him many times over at that point. It was nice to have it confirmed by someone else though. It made it feel like he wasn't imagining it.</p><p>"Yeah, I have never seen her act like this with a guy before. You must be something special." Max continued, enjoying her beer, "That or you have a pretty big dick."</p><p>He chose to ignore the vulgar comment (though his face did burn red fiercely after she said it). Instead, he focused on the rest of the information. He should care about the positive but for some reason, his mind zeroed in on another thought, "Has Connie dated a lot of guys?"</p><p>Max took another sip, "That depends on whether you count all the guys her parents have made her go out on blind dates with. But taking out her parental guided speed dating, including you?" —she counted them off on her fingers — "Four I know of."</p><p>It was a small number when compared to how many people he'd been with. It was honestly probably low compared to most other people, especially when considering he was the only one of them Connie had slept with. It shouldn't have bothered him yet it did. He suddenly understood why she felt threatened by those random girls on InstaSnap.</p><p>Max didn't notice his change in mood as she kept talking, "You're the best one by far though. Not just because you're cool and I love your music. She's also gone full-blown teenage girl with a celebrity crush over you. She acts like she’s actually happy to be with you which is a first when it comes to Connie and guys."</p><p>"Wait, really?"</p><p>"Yeah, Connie has dated basically nothing but losers," Max waved her hand and rolled her eyes, "I was starting to worry she just enjoyed being miserable."</p><p>That did make Steven feel better. He made Connie happy. According to Max, he was the only guy to ever make Connie happy. He couldn't help his pride and his joy from knowing that. He couldn't manage to get the smile off his face after that either Apparently, he was already nailing this whole boyfriend thing.</p><p>"Oh my God," Max said, recalling the three awful guys. Each of which she had been forced to endure over several weeks or even months. The need to vent about how annoying they had been suddenly seized her, "The first boyfriend she had was a total snore-fest. Hearing this guy talk made getting your toenails ripped off one by one seem like a spa treatment."</p><p>"Oh?" Steven said, finally sipping his beer. He wasn't sure what else to say, thoughts consumed by Connie.</p><p>"Yeah," Max groaned, "He was the nephew of a suit who probably has a second family in Rhode Island that Connie's dad went to school with. He always talked about being an investment broker or some other shit. They dated for about two or three weeks and I swear to you she looked like she was about to puke her guts out every time the guy touched her. I have no idea how she stomached him. He was the only guy her parents introduced her to that she went out with more than once so she must have learned her lesson."</p><p>Steven felt a weird twinge of jealousy. Though he wasn't sure why. Max just told him Connie disliked this guy to the point of her feeling ill around him. He took another long swig of his beer as he tried to pinpoint what bothered him about the guy. This unknown educated guy who wanted to be an investment broker. What even was an investment broker? What did they do? That sounded important, like the jobs he saw in movies where the people have to wear a suit every day. Steven didn't own a suit, he didn't even own a <em> tie. </em> He didn’t need one. They weren’t required in the kind of meetings he attended. The one time he wore a tie had been at a funeral. Investment brokers probably wore them all of the time. They also probably made a lot more money than Steven did.</p><p>Connie had been introduced to this guy by her father too. If Max were to be believed then Connie's parents introduced her to a lot of guys. Steven had never heard of parents doing that. Was it normal to be set-up with a guy by your dad? He knew he wouldn't want Greg to set him up with anyone. That seemed like it would be weird for everyone involved. Perhaps she also felt that way. That didn't change the fact her dad had introduced the two of them, meaning he had wanted them to date.</p><p>Again Max didn't notice how upset he was getting as she talked. "Then this other guy she dated was a transfer student from Ireland who thought he was such hot shit!"</p><p>Max laughed after another sip of her beer as Steven held his bottle to his mouth for a while, taking a long drink. He heard Max snort from laughter once she had remembered one story about the douchebag.</p><p>"You wouldn't believe it," she continued to half rant and half mock, "This idiot boy actually tried to lecture Connie on why he thought capitalism is the most progressive economic system in the developed world. <em> Connie!" </em></p><p>Max laughed and Steven just nodded with a smile to pretend he knew why that was a silly thing to do. Capitalism was the way that money was handled in their country, right? Or was it some type of society? A government thing? He had no idea. This guy had though. Enough to talk about it with Connie who also knew enough to disagree with him over it. The guy must have been smart because Connie was very smart.</p><p>"They got into a huge debate over it too," Max went on, recalling the awful night in her dorm room of Connie and that jackass yelling at each other loud enough that Max's music did nothing to cover it up. "It was so bad, it didn't even end in them hate fucking or anything. She eventually threw him out. And it still took her a week to dump him! Probably because her mom liked him."</p><p>Steven downed a large portion of his beer. So her mom had liked the second one. It was just as strange as her dad introducing her to the first guy. Steven was happy when Greg liked any girl he liked but his dad not liking someone would never deter Steven from dating her. He valued his dad's opinion but not above his feelings. Connie seemed to care deeply about how her parents felt about her romantic partner. Enough that it kept her with a guy who had disrespected her. Which made his blood boil even though Steven could do nothing about it now.</p><p>Max was close to finishing her beer and finishing her rant. She had never gotten to complain about Connie's annoying loser ex-boyfriends before. It was nice to get it off her chest. She had to put up with each of these jerks while they tried to get in her friend's pants. Every instance included the guy being an obnoxious asshole and Connie getting upset by it. It was always a hard time for them both and Max as well. She wouldn't have shared this with most people but Max didn't like it when people fought in front of her. It put her on edge.</p><p>"The guy she dated before the beginning of the summer was probably the worst though. It was a really creepy situation and I would have thought Connie knew better."</p><p>Steven figured it would be worse to ask than not to but he also couldn't stand not hearing what Max had to say. He needed to know everything he could about these guys. He tilted up his beer to get a good amount of alcohol into his system then asked Max, "Why was that?"</p><p>Max made a disgusted face, "She dated one of the adjuncts here."</p><p>Steven blinked a few times, confused, "Huh? She dated what?"</p><p>"An adjunct," Max repeated, then getting that he didn't understand explained, "They're part-time teachers here. They don't have an office or anything and they are only on campus sometimes."</p><p>"But-" Steven cut off, feeling the pit of his stomach drop out before he could continue speaking "But these people teach actual college classes?"</p><p>"Yeah they do," Max confirmed for him, "But most of the time it's something lame that none of the full-time professors feel like teaching."</p><p>"So Connie dated a college professor?!" Steven stuttered out. That was so much worse than the other two. At least as far as the others were concerned it sounded like Steven had maturity and life experience over those guys. However, he felt certain someone who taught at a college level had those things too.</p><p>"Yeah technically but not really. He's just an adjunct. He teaches some classes here part-time but it's not exactly the same thing as being an actual professor. He's not a teacher in our major and he's younger than most of the faculty. So I guess it was a little less skeevy but the whole thing made my skin crawl. At least she wasn't pulling a porn star move and fucking a dude for better grades."</p><p>A guy who teaches college students. That sounded like the same as being a college professor to Steven. He imagined someone had to be super smart to teach at a college. So this guy was definitely an intellectual with some big fancy degree and that was the guy Connie had dated before she started dating Steven.</p><p>"Honestly, I thought that her parents were going to kill her over that one but they liked him a lot." She shrugged, having given up on understanding the situation. Max's dad and brothers would kill the guy if she dated a college professor, even if he was just an adjunct, "She said they were bummed when she dumped him and even tried to convince her to give him another chance."</p><p>Again Connie's parents came up and again they adored the guy. Steven didn't know anything about her parents except their last name as he could guess it was the same as her last name. Yet every guy Connie dated had met them. Except that was for him. He hadn't met her parents. The topic of her family had never come up. That put an uneasy feeling in his stomach.</p><p>Steven tried to convince himself there was nothing to that. After all, it was a coincidence that Connie had met his father already as they both just happened to be at the Star Destroyers show in Nashville. It wasn't as if Steven and Connie planned a Sunday brunch for her to meet his dad or anything. It was like Greg had said, he had met Connie but not as Steven's girlfriend. So it probably just hadn't occurred to Connie to introduce Steven to her parents. They were still in the early stages of their relationship and she probably didn't think that they were at that point yet. He wanted to believe that.</p><p>However, his mind replayed the afternoon in Los Angeles. The day after Steven had <em> made love </em> to someone for the first time. That someone, of course, being Connie. He had come back to her hotel room high and horny only to find her on the phone with her parents. He recalled the way she had hushed him from the moment he walked into the room and the way she hid the fact that he was there. Perhaps it wasn't a fair judgment of the situation because their relationship went undefined then. However, it didn't change that Connie had kept him a secret from her parents.</p><p>Steven couldn't help but wonder if he was still Connie's dirty little secret.</p><p>"Steven," Max said, suddenly sounding quite sincere, "Can I be honest with you?”</p><p>Steven shook himself out of his stupor, “Yeah, of course you can, Max.”</p><p>“It’s nice she's dating a sweet guy for once,” Max admitted, “All those pseudo-intellectuals just made everyone around them feel like total shit, including Connie. And she's so happy with you."</p><p>"Gee, thanks, Max," Steven replied as the comment uplifted his spirits.</p><p>"No problemo, Coolio," she said, knocking her empty beer bottle against his almost empty one, "Just know if you do anything to hurt her in any way I will hunt you down to strangle you to death with the strings of your own guitar."</p><p>Steven laughed nervously, responding, "That seems kinda inefficient."</p><p>"Perhaps it is." Max narrowed her eyes. "But it would hurt you both physically and emotionally which would be no less than you would deserve."</p><p>Before Steven could comment the door to the dorm suite opened and in walked an exhausted looking Connie. She had a large backpack on and a white sweater with the school logo on the left side of the chest. She had a massive headache. She tried to be nice to anyone who needed assistance when in the computer lab. That was difficult when freshman boys spoke to her like she didn't know what she was talking about. She had been bombarded that day with guys from some club who had concerns about printing only to ignore all her suggestions. How hard was it to understand that printing something as large as a poster would cost an extra seventy cents each print? How was it possible a bunch of college guys didn't know how to switch the page from portrait to landscape? Was 'you need to stop sending more jobs to the printer! It's jammed!' really that hard to understand? All she wanted to do was take a long shower and crawl into bed with a book.</p><p>It seemed however that she had company.</p><p>"Steven?" she asked, dropping her bag by the door. She felt her heartbeat quicken and it gave her a second wind. Exhaustion left her body as it was replaced with an overwhelming sense of elation and infatuation. She was surprised she didn’t immediately melt into a puddle on the floor when his eyes met with hers. He was as handsome as she remembered, maybe even somehow more so. She almost didn't believe it. Was Steven really there?</p><p>"Connie," Steven cheered while he hopped onto his feet. All his fears over his conversation with Max fled him as he saw his girlfriend for the first time since he had asked to be her boyfriend. She looked like a stressed-out mess. Her clothes were slightly disheveled as if she hadn’t had the energy to fix it. She had streaks of black, yellow, blue and pink ink on her pants. It looked like she had tried to wipe the stains away and failed. Her top ponytail was loose and it had hair falling out in every direction. There were obvious bags under her eyes. </p><p>Still, she was beautiful.</p><p>At the same time, Steven and Connie lunged forward to throw their arms around one another. They both tightened the grip as they hugged. Connie felt Steven bury his face in her hair like he’d done the last time they saw each other and knew it was intentional this time. She couldn't judge though as her face was pressed into his neck in the same desire to indulge in each other. They stayed this way a moment before pulling back to stare once again in their partner's eyes. Steven brushed some of that loose hair from her face causing Connie to sigh lightly in pleasure as his fingers graced her cheek. They were so close that they kept their voices at a whisper.</p><p>"Hi."</p><p>"Hey."</p><p>"What are you doing here?"</p><p>"I missed you."</p><p>"I missed you, too."</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>Steven barely heard her say that last word as he leaned in to kiss Connie. Usually, the two started slowly but an hour-long wait when she was so close created a hunger for her in Steven. He deepened their kiss seconds after it started. Connie followed his lead with no resistance. Allowing him to kiss her sensually, letting his hands rest on her hips to pull their bodies together firmly. Connie tangled the fingers of both hands into his curls as if she was afraid he would pull his mouth away. They hummed into their kiss as they both became aware of a tension between they had neglected since the end of the tour-</p><p>"Okay," a voice said loudly as a bottle hit the table and a chair scraped the floor. This caused the duo to pull apart and face Max still at the table, "This stopped being cute two seconds after you started. So as the other resident of this lovely shithole dorm room, I request you take your foreplay into Connie's room and give me five minutes to put on one of my records."</p><p>Steven and Connie took a step away from one another. How had they completely forgotten that Max was there? Steven felt bad about having abandoned their conversation while Connie felt bad for not even greeting her best friend. The moment they saw each other it was as if no one else existed. All either could see was the other. Connie was starved for human contact and Steven's touch was fulfilling. Meanwhile, Steven craved the emotional connection he shared only with Connie. Their hearts and their minds were flooded with thoughts of one another. It was tough to ignore the fiery chemistry that sparked between them. They wanted each other more than they wanted anything else in any way. It was hard to keep their hands to themselves.</p><p>Still making out in front of Max was rude.</p><p>"Hey, Max," Connie greeted as she went to retrieve her bag by the door. She hoped the red on her face wasn't too apparent. She had seen Steven's red face was obvious so she wasn't too optimistic about hiding it, "What were you two up to?"</p><p>"Save it, Con-stantinople," Max said as she was standing, "I know you don't care. I'm going to the bathroom then to my room to put on my music <em> very loudly. </em> You go ahead and do whatever, or <em> whoever </em>, you want." —Max did not hide the way that she wiggled her eyebrows at Steven— "Just keep it out of the common area."</p><p>"Max," Connie moaned as she stood with her bag back in hand. She didn't get to say anything more as Max disappeared behind the bathroom door. Connie sighed, feeling embarrassed but also grateful to be given space with Steven. He was standing with his hands in his pockets, waiting for her and looking adorable.</p><p>"Come on," she said, grabbing his arm with her free hand then leading him into her own room. She felt giddy over the idea that he was there. She wanted to be annoyed; he hadn't called or texted her first but seeing him again felt way too great for her to care all that much. Besides that she had surprised him in St. Louis.</p><p>"Okay," Steven said as Connie pulled him towards the door in the suite that had to be the one into <em> her </em> room. Max had only been joking around (or so he thought anyway) but Connie was taking Steven into her bedroom. He wanted to see the act as being completely innocent and most likely it was. Though Steven couldn't stop himself from imagining pinning Connie on a bed identical to the one in the other bedroom and making her moan his name.</p><p>Connie's room was identical to Max's room in size and shape. The difference was that while Max's room was a big mess decorated with band posters and gaming nicknacks, Connie's room was cleaner and she had chosen posters for inspirational quotes and fantasy novels to decorate her walls. She also had books in stacks set in places many people wouldn't expect books to be. Connie had fairy lights hung up over her bed. Steven noticed when he shut the door behind him she also had pictures on the back of it, similar to Max’s ticket collage. However, three of them caught his eye. The one from Washington DC the first night they hung out, the one from L.A. at the Santa Monica pier, and the one from the diner in St. Louis. Steven and Star Destroyers had prime spots in Connie's photo collection and that made him feel touched.</p><p>"Oh," Connie said, causing Steven to turn to face her. She looked down at herself as she took out her ponytail letting her hair fall free. As the thought occurred, her tired brain made her say it out loud, "I have to change out of my work clothes."</p><p>"Oh. Okay," Steven responded, unsure what she was trying to say. Was she telling him to leave the room? Did she want privacy?</p><p>"Okay," she repeated. She thought about asking him to leave the room but felt silly doing that. Steven was her boyfriend now and he had seen her naked several times. They took a shower together already! It wasn't a big deal if he was in the room while she changed out of her clothes.</p><p>Steven's eyes opened up a little bit wider when Connie started to unbutton her work sweater. Apparently, she didn't need him to leave. Unsure what else to do, he wandered around the room looking at various things scattered in the space. It felt like it would have been strange to just stand by her door, watching her take her clothes off. He had seen her naked before then and getting undressed wasn’t inherently sexual. He didn’t want to make her feel uneasy. However, she didn't tell him <em> not </em> to look and every so often his gaze traveled that way.</p><p>"So how was the drive in from Nashville?" she asked, trying her best to be comfortable with the current situation. Talking might help put her at ease.</p><p>"It was fine," he answered, glancing over at her but looking away quickly, "It took me about nine or ten hours."</p><p>"Yikes," she said as she slid her shirt down her arms. She wasn't sure if she was upset or relieved he was barely paying attention to her as she stripped her clothes off. He was being a gentleman which she was appreciative of. However, there was a part of her that wanted him to be looking at her with that awestruck expression on his face. "You must be tired."</p><p>"Nah, I did almost all of the driving during the tour, remember?" He looked her way as he said it however this time his eyes lingered. "We bonded over our important duty of getting our friends across state lines safely since they were either too drunk or high to do it."</p><p>"You say that like you never drive high," she said, the conversation making the fact that she was undoing her work pants and pulling them down her legs less awkward. "Which somehow I doubt is the case."</p><p>"Hey! I actually do try not to drive high. If I can avoid it." He wasn't even pretending to not be watching her as he walked over to her dresser.</p><p>"How insulted would you be if I said I didn't believe you?"</p><p>"It would cut me pretty deep, I won't lie."</p><p>"Well in that case," Connie continued as she turned and found Steven leaning on her dresser next to her. "I trust you one hundred percent, <em> Universe." </em></p><p>"Thank you," he said softly. He <em> loved </em> when she said his last name like that and while he knew she was playing with him, hearing her say the words, 'I trust you' made some kind of warm, pleasant feeling settle itself in his chest, stomach, and head. He moved into her personal space. She paused in action as he did. Their eyes found each other again.</p><p>Connie realized too late that there was still far too much tension between them for any amount of nudity to be completely casual. Just because they had seen each other naked didn’t mean it had lost its thrill yet. That would have been better to know before he was standing less than a foot away while she was wearing nothing but her bra and underwear. Steven certainly wasn’t looking at her like the prospect of her body being exposed was mundane. She wanted to be offended when his gaze traveled along her form as if he had never seen her like this before. She wasn't. Truthfully she loved it whenever he looked at her with hooded eyes and the ghost of a smirk present on his face. When he looked at her like that she felt incredibly sexy. It was a nice feeling considering her crappy day.</p><p>Steven wanted to touch her or kiss her or both but felt like that would have crossed the line. Lucky for him, Connie wanted him as much as he did her so she kissed him instead. As if it was just instinct their hands went for each other's bodies. They fit together as best they could as their fingers ran over their partner's form. They both smiled with tiny laughs as soon as his warm hands touched her chill body and her cool hands touched his hot body. The temperature change always gave them both an exciting tickle on their skin. Their kiss deepened and their groping became more insistent.</p><p>“Oh,” Connie gasped into his mouth when his pelvis pushed up against hers. She glanced down with a blush, “That was fast.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Steven said, looking away. He didn’t want to admit to her that he had already been hard before they started kissing.</p><p>“You don’t have to be sorry, silly,” she giggled then she recaptured his mouth in another kiss that soon reached the same level of passion.</p><p>Connie began to yank at Steven's pink flannel until he allowed it to be pulled from his arms. They barely slowed down as it dropped to her floor. Only a moment later Connie was pulling the hem of his shirt up and Steven let her go so they could take his shirt off. It joined his flannel on her floor as each set of lips latched together again. Steven pursued her mouth with firm kisses as his hands mapped out her bare skin. The sensation of skin to skin contact was euphoric. They moaned into one another's mouths from how pleasurable it was. Their torsos rubbed along each other as they tried to feel the other person as much as possible. He grunted in desire as he twisted them until she was being pinned by his body against her dresser. They continued making out intensely.</p><p>Steven's kisses moved from her lips down to her neck as Connie's hands landed on his jeans. With a confidence she never would have had before the end of summer, Connie unfastened Steven's belt. Again they both became aware of the fact that they hadn't had sex since the tour ended two months ago.</p><p>Suddenly very loud music blasted from the other side of the wall causing them to jump apart at the sound, caught off guard by the surprising interruption. Max had not been kidding about turning on loud music. They were breathing heavily as they registered what had happened. They were flushed and embarrassed as their lust-addled brains acclimated to the situation.</p><p>Steven chuckled, nervously. He looked past her at the wall she shared with Max. With his mouth hovering close to her mouth he said with a laugh in his tone, "Talk about Deja vu."</p><p>After a moment, Connie giggled as well. He meant the recording studio, of course. The music Max was playing was perhaps even less appropriate than the song that had played the first time they had sex. That song had become hot in retrospect.</p><p>"It looks like we don't have to be quiet," Steven whispered against Connie’s neck before going back to kissing it while fingers drew a circle around her belly button. He was eager to continue where they left off.</p><p>Connie on the other hand had gone stiff. She wanted Steven. She couldn't even count how many times she had fantasized about this scenario. She ached for him. However, the thought of her best friend one room away gave her hesitation. It was one thing for Max to know Connie was sleeping with Steven (which she did). It was another for Max to hear it. She couldn't take the idea of having to face her roommate after the other young woman had listened to her have sex with her boyfriend. It very quickly turned Connie off.</p><p>"Hey," she said, putting her hands against his bare chest to push him back. He went with some small amount of resistance but not much.</p><p>"What's up?" he asked, wondering why she had stopped him. The uncertain look on her face made him worry that he had somehow done something wrong here.</p><p>"Do you want me to show you around?" Connie suggested, pulling from his arms.</p><p>"Uh, sure," he said then asked as politely as he could manage. "But could it wait?"</p><p>Steven would never want to pressure Connie into anything but she was also in her underwear and had just been making out with him. He'd never been hornier in his entire life.</p><p>"I want to show you the campus before it gets too dark out to see anything," she explained as much to his disappointment Connie removed a pair of track shorts and a t-shirt from her closet. She pulled them on after that, cementing the end to them fooling around.</p><p>"Alright, that sounds nice," he said, forcing a smile. It did sound nice. The idea of spending any amount of time with her doing almost anything sounded wonderful. It’s just that he would have rather taken their walk after he had gotten them both off.</p><p>The moment was lost. Steven reached to gather his own shirts and put them on as Connie brushed her hair with her fingers and cleaned her glasses. Once they were both presentable again she took his hand in hers and led him out of her room and out of the dorm.</p><p>They took their time making their way around her campus. Connie was more interested in showing him the fun places like the art and music building and the activities building. She did walk him by a few of the buildings with classrooms though. She took him by the library too. Steven enjoyed that even though all the books were non-fiction. She’d learned since she started dating Steven that he liked to read just hardly ever had time to find books. She had “bullied” him into reading her favorite childhood fantasy series already and was prepared to convince him to read the trashy supernatural romance books she devoured as a teenager next. </p><p>There was a lot more to Steven Universe than people seemed to assume and Connie liked that about him.</p><p>"Is there any building here that is less than a hundred years old?" Steven asked, looking over the number plaque on the side of the library building once they left. He had done the same thing at every other building as well. "And why do they all have fancy names?"</p><p>"What do you mean?" Connie asked him, watching as he touched the plaque as if he was trying to prove that it was real.</p><p>"They have weird names like 'Doland' and 'McNancy' and 'Gilmore.' Who named all of these places anyway?" he questioned, grabbing her hand, "And why didn't they think of something more fun?"</p><p>Cocking her head as she pulled him back onto the walkway and asked, "What would you have named them then?"</p><p>Steven thought for a moment as they kept walking along the path. He pointed to the biggest one in the distance and said, "I would call that one The Super Center of Super Important Things since it's right in the middle of everything and it had all the important offices you showed me."</p><p>"Yeah, that makes sense." She nodded as he looked at the other buildings in the distance that they already passed.</p><p>"And I would call that one the Loopitity Loop building because we walked around it five times to get to some of the other buildings." He pointed to another building to the side then pointed to the one furthest away, "I'd call that one the Way, Way Outta Sight building because it's so far away from everything else."</p><p>"Yeah, it is. I had an eight am class there twice a week during my first semester." She groaned at the memory, "It wasn't a fun walk."</p><p>"Really? That sounds awful," Steven moaned in solidarity with past Connie. Then feeling a little ashamed added, "I don't even get out of bed until afternoon most days."</p><p>"Yeah, but you also play until really late," she reminded him. She remembered how rough the tour was for her. Living a lifestyle like that must have been so much harder. "And sometimes you don't even get to go to sleep until three or four in the morning. You work hard, Steven."</p><p>As silly as it was Steven felt his face burn. People would often devalue what he did for a living. He had been called lazy and told to get a "real job" multiple times since he started playing with Star Destroyers. Plenty of other people had also validated his career over the years as well. Connie was not the first person to recognize what Steven did as a job but she was certainly the smartest person who ever had. Hearing her call his music "work" like it was an actual career put a softness of affection and appreciation in his heart.</p><p>Unsure what else to say and knowing that he was now smiling a goofy smile, he pointed to the building they had been standing by not long before. "That one should be called The Liberty Bell building because it looks like a bell from this side and the stairs look like a crack."</p><p>"Oh. That's so clever," she laughed happily. "Honestly, your names make way more sense. They're easier to figure out. I bet students wouldn't get lost as much around here if the staff thought like you do."</p><p>Steven stared at her as he wondered if he'd ever been called clever before. He didn't think so. He wouldn't have called himself clever. Connie would know better than him though. She was very smart and went to a college which was a place for smart people. She probably knew a lot of clever people. He knew she had at least dated a couple of clever people…</p><p>"So then where do they get their names?"</p><p>"They're mostly named after people who donated money to the college," she said as she led him towards the main sidewalk. Steven felt her grip tighten briefly in his hand. This action alone caused his grin to widen. He had gotten to know Connie well enough to see immediately what was next.</p><p>"It's just ridiculous, you know?" she said.</p><p>“What is?” he asked with a wide smile in order to encourage her.</p><p>"You would think a <em> university </em> campus which is a place made specifically to benefit those who are looking for higher education would put the students' needs first! You would think that ease of navigation, the comfort level, and accessibility for the actual students would be the top priority. Well, you would be wrong! The way the college system is run in this country it's as if they think they're doing us a <em> favor. </em> These schools can't even function without students and we as a nation are suffering from a shortage of college graduates. Yet they act like we should be grateful for whatever they feel like giving us. The administration acts like we shouldn't protest when money is donated to the school and they build a new building so they can slap a fancy name on it to give some rich pig an ego trip instead of taking the money and using it for upkeep! I understand that the money can't just be used on anything but why are they building a brand new separate computer lab for the business students when the one the school already has needs as much upkeep as it does? I had to fix three paper jams today because they refuse to get new printers and won't spend money on the correct photo paper for the ones that they do have!"</p><p>"Uh-huh," he said, eyes fixated on her in a loving gaze. She barely noticed his stare, caught up in her own head.</p><p>"And don't think I am only complaining because I work there! Because I'm not," she continued, "The new building also has a bunch of smart-board classrooms and most of my classes have been moved there so I'm benefiting too. But Max is still stuck in the old building where half the chalkboards are so dirty that the teachers can't even write on them anymore! How is that fair? We share a major! How come half of the sociology classes are in the nice building but the other half are still in the old one? Max and I pay the same tuition and so we should have access to the same tools. We should be receiving the same education! Sure, we dual major in different fields but that doesn't matter because I am talking about our shared major!"</p><p>"Dual major?" Steven asked, enjoying yet another of his girlfriend's rants though getting lost on some details as always.</p><p>"We each have two majors," Connie clarified, "We both study Sociology. Then I'm also a major in Political Science and Max is Pre-Law."</p><p>"Pre-what?"</p><p>"Pre-Law," she explained again, "She wants to be a lawyer."</p><p>"Max wants to be a what?" He stopped in his tracks.</p><p>"She wants to be a lawyer," she repeated, "She wants to represent kids in family court cases."</p><p>Steven thought back to the girl his band had gotten to know over the summer tour. The girl who sneaked backstage and crowd-surfed and said every thought that passed through her mind no matter how inappropriate it was. He couldn't make any sense of the idea of that same girl showing up to work every day in a suit ready to go before a judge and discuss the law. It wasn't that Steven had ever thought of Max as dumb. She was clearly an intelligent person based on her own merits and on being Connie's peer at college. He just hadn't realized that Max was 'future lawyer' smart.</p><p>"That's cool," he said wishing he honestly felt that way. He did think it was cool that Max wanted to be a lawyer. He thought it was cool Connie was smart and had smart friends. Her intelligence was one of the things he liked most about her. Unfortunately, he also could not help himself from feeling like the dumbest person in his girlfriend’s life by far.</p><p>"Yeah, she'll be good at it," she said having lost the steam for her rant. Her boyfriend seemed to be stuck inside of his own head. She felt like he kept zoning out on her. She was about to ask if everything was okay when he cut her off.</p><p>"Do your parents like Max?" Steven asked, much to her surprise and panic.</p><p>"My parents…?” </p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“I mean sure, they like her a lot," Connie answered unsure why he would even ask about that. Then before he could say anything else she added quickly, "Hey, do you want to head back to my room now? It’s getting dark."</p><p>The way Steven was looking at her, Connie knew he wasn't going to accept her quick, unusual change of subject. Even though he said, "sure," she knew he wasn't going to drop the topic. Steven could be persistent. Which is why she wasn't shocked as she led him back to the dorm he continued.</p><p>"So," he began, stretching out the word. Put-off by how fast she blew through his question and started dragging him back the way they came. "When can I meet your parents?"</p><p>She didn’t stop. She didn’t look at him. She just kept leading him along as she quietly said, "Steven…" </p><p>It was all the confirmation he needed. "Oh."</p><p>"No, no," she jumped in to clarify before Steven got the wrong idea. Or the mostly wrong idea. Judging by his face he was about to assume the worst. "I just- I really don't like them involved in my romantic life. It's not about you."</p><p>"Huh?" he said, feeling genuinely confused by her words perhaps because he wanted so much to believe what she was saying, "They met all the other guys you dated?"</p><p>"How do you-" she asked then she hissed under her breath, "Max!"</p><p>"So why don't you want me to meet your parents?" Steven pushed her for an answer. Because he needed an answer. Any answer that wasn't the one currently burrowing deeply into his brain, feeding every insecurity he had. She had to give him something. Anything to destroy the painful fear of inadequacy currently making its permanent home in his heart.</p><p>Connie searched in her mind desperately. She wasn't sure how to say it. She hadn’t been lying. She didn’t like her parents involved in her romantic life, they just always had been and she had decided she didn’t want them to be anymore. She figured eventually he was going to ask her about her parents. She just thought she was going to have more time to work out what she was going to say before he did. How did this guy always manage to throw her for a loop and not do what she expected? Even though it was one of the things she found most attractive about him, that still frustrated her.</p><p>"I don't think that would go over very well," she finally said, unsure what else to say.</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>"It just… wouldn't."</p><p>"You don't want them to know about us." It wasn't a question. He fought the tears that had started gathering in his eyes, "Are you ashamed of me?"</p><p>"Of course not!" Connie defended, feeling her fist clench hard in determination and her hold on his hand tightened. “Why would I be ashamed of you?”</p><p>“Well because I’m not… you know.” Steven gestured around at the dorms unable to say his fear out loud, “Like the other guys you dated.”</p><p>Connie snorted in annoyance without thought then said, “That’s not a bad thing, Steven.”</p><p>“It’s not?”</p><p>“No, it’s not.”</p><p>"Then I don't understand," he continued, knowing he had failed at holding back his emotions and was crying, "All those other guys met your parents. Why don't you want them to meet me?"</p><p>She bit her lip. She couldn't keep avoiding giving him an answer. Steven deserved to know the actual truth. He deserved respect and honesty. With a sigh, she braced herself and pulled him along at a slower pace while she spoke.</p><p>"You know you're my first boyfriend, right?" she asked, "Officially. I've never called any other guy my boyfriend."</p><p>"Yeah, I know that," he answered. That should have made him feel better but it only just added to the confusion of the whole situation.</p><p>Connie sighed, "Do you want to know why I've never had a boyfriend before?"</p><p>Steven nodded.</p><p>"Because I'm not supposed to," she said, looking at the sidewalk and not his face as she spoke, "At least not until my parents have met and approved of someone first."</p><p>"Oh." Suddenly Steven felt less special. Was Connie trying to hurt his feelings?</p><p>"And one time they did approve of the guy I was seeing," she continued, "Both of them. It was kind of amazing. I thought they were going to be so pissed at me for dating this guy. I had just turned twenty-one and he was almost twenty-six! Not to mention he works at my school.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Steven said sadly, “I heard you dated a professor.”</p><p>“I dated an adjunct,” she corrected, pointedly, “And my parents were surprisingly okay with it. They really liked him. More than I did."</p><p>"So, what happened?" he asked, sensing there was a point to this story.</p><p>"I just told you what happened, silly," she laughed a little, "They liked him more than I did. A lot more than I did. I spent years trying to find a guy that my parents would approve of and I finally did it. I found the perfect guy for them. But they weren't the ones that had to date him. I was and I didn't want to. Sure he was smart and handsome and creative but he was also obnoxious and condescending and liked to hear himself talk. He would never have just listened to me go off about the unfair distribution of wealth in our country or the dangerous commodifying of students in our education system. Even if he agreed with me he always thought he could say it better.” —Connie rolled her eyes— "I didn't want to put up with any of it. I didn't want to be his anything, let alone be his girlfriend. So I broke up with him instead."</p><p>“Yeah that doesn’t sound great,” he said with a sympathetic smile.</p><p>"After that, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I had never been that interested in dating and now I was even less interested.” She moved closer to him. Much closer, “Then you happened. I knew from the moment we met my parents wouldn’t approve of us. There was no way they would like you." —She stopped them outside her dorm building. Her body was pushed right up against his body and she held his hands in her own hands— "But I liked you. I liked you a lot. And I like you even more now than when we first met."</p><p>"You do?"</p><p>"Of course I do," she giggled, "You're the only guy I've ever dated because I wanted to. I have never been with a guy because I liked him. It's always been about… checking the right boxes."</p><p>"Yeah?” he asked, thinking on his own experiences, “I'm not a big fan of checking boxes."</p><p>"Me either."</p><p>Steven played with her fingers interlaced with his own. Hearing all that had certainly felt good but it didn't ease his mind. "So if you don't care what they think anymore, why don't you want me to meet them?"</p><p>"It’s not that I don’t care what they think,” Connie answered, looking to the side, “I probably still care too much about it. It’s complicated. They aren’t going to be happy about this. Even if I don’t tell them about the… sex stuff. They don’t even know I followed your band on tour over summer. They think I went on an educational road trip across the country. Telling them about you would mean telling them about a lot of other things I don’t want them to know about. I’m just not ready to go there yet. I love my parents but things aren’t exactly easy with them.”</p><p>“I understand that.” He thought about his own family. He couldn’t honestly say he would want Connie to meet any of them except for his father. Even then he would’ve preferred that the two of them met under different circumstances than they did. He didn’t even know what to consider his mom’s old bandmates. They were family in some way. Steven understood complicated and he couldn’t fault her for her choices.</p><p>“I’m just really happy right now, being with you. They would ruin it. They would just criticize us and make us feel bad and be judgemental and make everything so hard and then you might-” she cut herself off.</p><p>“I might what?”</p><p>She bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to say the last part. She had already let it slip though so sadly she admitted, “You might not think this is worth it and you would leave and I wouldn’t blame you. But I don’t want them to chase you away,”</p><p>“That could never happen!” he said, shifting to put his arm around her waist and hug her to him. “Nothing is going to chase me away. Ever. I want to be with you.”</p><p>“It really isn’t you,” she said, putting a hand to his cheek, “Or not only you. But even then it’s-”</p><p>“It’s okay. I believe you,” he said holding her hand against his face.</p><p>“Really?” she asked, sounding relieved.</p><p>“Really,” he confirmed though he did ask, “But you are going to tell them at some point, right?”</p><p>“Eventually,” she sighed, “I just can’t promise it will be anytime soon.”</p><p>“Okay,” he said, he wasn’t happy with it but he didn’t have a right to influence her relationship with her parents. “I trust you.”</p><p>“Thanks,” she said with an adoring smile. He was the sweetest most understanding guy she had ever met. She liked that much more than any supposed intelligence or sophistication.</p><p>Wordlessly, they started walking towards her room again, hand in hand. She rested her head on his shoulder and hugged onto his arm with her free hand. With a contented sigh, she whispered, "I'm really happy you came to see me.”</p><p>“I’m happy I came to see you too,” he responded, twisting his face to kiss her forehead. The rest of the walk was made in silence.</p><p>They made it back to her suite to find Max had turned her music down but had not come out of her own room. Connie took Steven directly to her room as she only felt Max would complicate the situation even more. Connie would have a conversation later with her roommate and friend about talking with her boyfriend about her parents. Although, she wasn’t too upset with Max. Connie hid a lot from her parents but guys weren’t actually one of them. There would have been no way for her friend to know this time was different. Because it was. Steven was different from the other guys she had dated. He was special to her. She didn’t want anything or anyone to get in the way of what they had. She wanted things with him to last. She felt strong feelings for him. Very strong feelings.</p><p>“It got dark fast,” Steven said, sadly, looking out her window. His trip was looking much longer now that he had to say goodbye to Connie to make it. Connie hugged him from behind tightly and lay a kiss on the back of his neck. </p><p>“You want to order food? I normally go to the dining hall but I can make an exception tonight,” her voice deepened and her breath tickled his skin as she spoke, “Besides what’s a sleepover without pizza or chinese food or both?”</p><p>Both the sensation and the words sent a chill along his spine. Unfortunately, it reminded him that he hadn’t told her this was a short visit. He turned in her arms to hug her back and Connie saw from the look on his face he had bad news. He gave her a kiss of his own on her forehead again and she pouted even when all he said was, “You know, I’d love to sleep over.”</p><p>“But?” she whined, worried she had chased him away.</p><p>“I’m driving out to California to meet the band. I’m supposed to be there in a day,” he explained, then added, “I really wanted to see you so I decided to stop by on my way.”</p><p>She heard how disappointed she was when she spoke, “So you’re getting on the road tonight?” </p><p>“I have to,” he replied with the same amount of disappointment, “I wish I didn’t.”</p><p>“But didn’t you drive straight here from Nashville?” she said with concern in her voice.</p><p>“Yeah I did, but I’m used to it. I’ll be okay.”</p><p>Connie looked him up and down a few times then took a step back as she made her decision. She walked over to her bed as she said, “Come on.”</p><p>“What?” He was not sure what to think of the action.</p><p>She began to pull back her sheets as she instructed, “Get in bed. You are not driving for another who knows how many hours without some sleep.”</p><p>“Connie, don’t worry,” Steven said, feeling his heart flutter erratically from her concern for him and her being comfortable with him in her bed, “I do this all the time.”</p><p>“You can't just drive for hours on end with no breaks." </p><p>"I just took a break."</p><p>"You walked around my campus, that's not taking a break!"</p><p>"I'll be fine."</p><p>"Steven," Connie whispered sweetly although it was still a firm tone as she climbed into her bed to lay down herself. “You need to rest. Please. For me.”</p><p>Steven watched his girlfriend pat the bed with gentle taps, clearly inviting him to join her in bed. It was just barely big enough for two bodies so they would have to get close to fit. He wasn't feeling too tired but there was no way he was going to miss cuddling up with Connie for the next couple hours. He might have to skip some stops on the way or he may be late getting into L.A., but he couldn’t care less about either of those things. Just the prospect of spending an evening with Connie in her bed might have convinced him to skip the trip entirely. So he kicked off his shoes and hurried over to climb underneath the covers with her. She giggled as he settled in next to her by wrapping his arms around her and setting his head on the space between her chest and her stomach.</p><p>The two of them cuddled up in her bed as she ran her fingers through his curly locks. It felt great to be in each other's company like this even if they both knew it wouldn't be long until he had to drive off again. Still, she wanted to enjoy their time together in the moment and he did too. This is what she wanted to keep sacred. She savored moments like this one where they were absorbed in an all-consuming kind of way in each other. This was so precious to her. This was something worth preserving. What they had was real. What they had was special. What they had was…</p><p>"Steven?"</p><p>"Yeah?" he responded and she could hear the yawn in his voice despite his protests of him not needing to rest. Connie steeled her nerves.</p><p>"I think I love you."</p><p>Steven would swear he felt his heart stop. He tilted his head to look at her face. “What?”</p><p>Connie's face flushed and her body went stiff. It was too late to go back, however. She had already said it and she had no desire to backtrack on the statement. So putting both her hands on both his cheeks, she held his face and stared directly into his eyes as she repeated, “I said that I think I- I said I love you, Steven. Because I do.”</p><p>“You…”</p><p>He was just staring up at her, bugged eyed as if trying to solve a complex math problem in his head and she began to panic. “I didn’t plan to say it, I just did and I don’t expect-”</p><p>“I love you, too, Connie!” It felt like being able to breathe for the first time in months.</p><p>She completely relaxed. "You do?"</p><p>"Yeah," he said, crawling to lay down next to her, "I do. I love you."</p><p>Then they wrapped their arms tightly around each other as they settled down into her bed. For the second time that day, they hugged tightly, indulging in their now stated aloud love for one another. They loved each other. They’d both known that was the case at least on some level before. Neither could name when it happened exactly. It could have been on the tour. It could have been after the show in St. Louis. It could have been at that moment, on that day. It could have been anytime in between. They loved each other in such a way that made it feel like they had simply always been in love. Being in love was just a fact of their lives. As if there was no time even before they knew each other that they didn’t love one another.</p><p>Hearing it out loud made it real in a different way. Steven had said ‘I love you’ to a lot of girls and none had said it back to him and actually meant it. They said it out of politeness sometimes or because they were caught up in the moment of having sex. To be fair he didn’t mean it when he’d said it to them either. It was a mutual lie for his benefit. As for Connie, she had never even said ‘I love you’ to anyone. She had never felt that way and why would she say it if she didn’t feel it? It was a waste of everyone’s time to lie like that.</p><p>It wasn’t a lie this time though. It was the ultimate truth for them both.</p><p>“I’ve never said that to anyone before,” she confessed quietly into his ear, “Only you.”</p><p>“I’ve never said it and meant it before,” he confessed into her ear as well, “Only you.”</p><p>Slowly they both pulled out of their hug. Connie put her hands back on his face and Steven put his hands behind her head and on her bicep. They smiled, eyes overflowing with emotion. It felt like everything and nothing was different at the same time. </p><p>Giddy off feeling free to do so Steven said, "I love you."</p><p>"I love you," Connie tittered back.</p><p>They giggled together then pulled each other in for a soft, short kiss. It was soon followed by another soft, short kiss. Then a few more after that one too. Gentle, innocent, and full of love. Far too soon they moved apart to gaze at each other while shifting to lay completely in her bed, holding hands again. Squeezed against each other due to the small size of the bed, they kept their eyes locked and smiled fondly.</p><p>This was what it felt like to be in love.</p><p>“Oh my gosh,” Connie said like an excited child, her stomach full of tickles, “We’re in love!”</p><p>“Yeah!” Steven cheered back, holding even tighter to her hands, “We’re in love!”</p><p>Connie released one hand to run her fingers through his fluffy hair. Steven shut his eyes to indulge in the touch. His hand went to her back to hold her close. He felt safe with Connie. That security made him feel how worn out he was from his drive and their emotional conversation. He had quickly become sleepy and her soothingly petting his head was lulling him to sleep. Something she had noticed. She leaned her face closer to his face, lips almost touching lips.</p><p>"You need sleep," she whispered then gave him a quick kiss.</p><p>"Okay," he agreed, feeling his eyes droop and almost close. "I'll sleep."</p><p>"Thank you," she said and kissed him again, "Goodnight, Steven."</p><p>"Goodnight," he whispered back as he closed his eyes and unable to help himself added one last time, "I love you."</p><p>"And I love you."</p><p>After that Connie watched Steven drift off to sleep. She probably had more important things to do and he probably would have slept better if she gave him space. It was not the best idea to stay in bed with him. However, she didn't want to leave him. She wanted to stay and feel his body heat and watch him breathe. She could do that for the rest of her night, maybe she could even do it for the rest of her life. She didn't need to think about that yet though.</p><p>They were in love. Nothing else mattered.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks again to DepressedCarrot for letting me play around in RockStar AU! I will always appreciate their willingness and enthusiasm to share this world of theirs with me!</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
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